Why Are You My Clarity?
by FloralHummingbird
Summary: The Maximoff twins finally get settled in at the new Avengers Facility months after the attack on Sokovia; they were starting to move on with their lives and do the world some good. That is until Nick Fury calls them up on a solo mission to bring back a girl with unique powers. And even with her short-temper and trust issues, Pietro can't help but take interest in her.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first Avengers fanfic, came up with the idea after watching the movie as I'm sure everyone else has too. :p Please read and let me know what you think! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: All rights belong to Marvel, I own nothing but my own characters.**

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It had been six months since the attack on Sokovia; six months since the twins had joined the Avengers and made their new home at the new Avengers facility in New York where they were trained under the leadership of Captain Rogers and Natasha Romanoff. It hadn't been easy for them at first; new recruit training had been much harder than they bargained for and going on missions with Rogers, Romanoff, and the others were difficult to get used to. Even though they struggled a little, they eventually were able to settle down nicely with the ongoing fight to take down the remaining HYDRA bases and making new friendships along the way. That was until one day Nick Fury called them both in on a private meeting.

"Do you think we're being fired?" Pietro suggested sarcastically as he walked along his sister's side; they were on their way to one of the designated meeting rooms where they would soon meet Fury. Wanda rolled her eyes and smiled, "I doubt it. But I'm almost tempted to read his mind as soon as he comes in to find out." She admitted, but in reality she wouldn't. Over the past few months, she learned that reading someone's mind without their permission can be really rude at times.

When they reached the meeting room, it was still empty. They figured that they must have been a little early, or Fury must have been running late. Either way, they tried to make themselves comfortable in the uncomfortable black leathered meeting chairs and started chatting away. Not even five minutes had passed before the door to the meeting room slowly opened. The twins had straightened themselves up and turned to look to see that not only had Fury arrived, Agent Hill had followed in tow too.

"I guess you're both wondering why I called a meeting with only you two." He exclaimed right away before the door even closed behind Maria Hill, who seemed to have some sort of high-tech tablet in her hands.

"Did we do something wrong?" Wanda asked right away, still tempted to read their minds to figure what this is about. Pietro on the other hand just sat quietly and waited.

"Quite the opposite really, and I'd really appreciate if you didn't read our minds before I even get the chance to explain Wanda, it'll be a lot better for the both of you to hear everything together." Fury remarked as he and Hill sat down. Wanda blinked in surprise, it was almost as if Fury had read _her_ mind, which shocked her. She remained quiet and allowed him to continue.

"In the few months that you've both been here, your performance on missions and the ability to work with others has definitely made some improvements since the attack of Ultron," the very mention of Ultron had sent chills up Wanda's spine and made Pietro's jaw clench in anger, "That being said, you both have become quite important members and should have a chance at your own mission, without the help of Rogers or Romanoff or anyone else." The twins looked quizzically at each other; did Fury trust them that much already to give them a solo mission?

"Our first mission alone?" Pietro asked, his heart started racing at just the excitement of hearing about a solo mission. Fury then looked to Agent Hill and nodded, as if giving her the go to continue from where he left off.

"It's actually a recruiting mission, someone that we found that might be a very eligible person for becoming our newest member. Also someone that you might be able to relate to," Maria started and she could see that both of them were giving her confused stares. It was then when she decided to pull up the picture on her device. She placed the tablet on the table and the twins immediately leaned forward to get a better look; it was a picture of a girl from the shoulder up, a girl that was about their age. She had long, wavy, dark brown-almost black hair that framed a fine face; she had two stone grey eyes surrounded by black eyeliner that gave off an icy-cold stare.

"She's pretty cute." Pietro uttered with a smirk and Wanda couldn't help but punch her brother lightly on the arm, indicating that this wasn't the time to be funny. As soon as Agent Hill knew their attention was back on track, she continued to debrief them, "Her name is Thalia Peterson, although right now she's going by the alias of Katherine Jeter. She used to be one of Baron Von Strucker's experiments. She-

"What?" The twins interrupted at the same time, the looks on their faces showed that what they just heard was ludicrous.

"I thought we were the only ones that survived from Strucker's experiments." Pietro recalled.

"Technically you were," Fury interjected, "You see, not so far from Sokovia, there had been a second HYDRA base that was completely hidden from our eyes. Even most HYRDA members didn't even know about it. But there at that base was where Strucker kept Thalia for years, until suddenly she was deemed deceased by HYDRA."

"Then how are you so sure it's her?" Wanda asked.

"Now, we don't have all of the details, but when Stark downloaded all of the files he could get his hands on when they were invading the main base you both were kept at, we came across some of Thalia's files. In the few files we have, we found this picture and a few entries logged by Strucker himself; apparently she has the ability to manipulate and generate powerful fields of energy, like barriers with both her mind and body, as far as her capabilities go, we're not quite sure of. But the person we've been keeping tabs on, the one so called Katherine, she matches the description in the picture perfectly." Agent Hill informed, "and also not even a few weeks ago, she was even arrested. The police report we brought up here says that she was arrested due to 'reckless behavior and destroying multiple police cars with some type of _purple force field_ " Agent Hill had to read the last part almost comically, "But she was then released due to lack of evidence."

"Reckless behavior and destroying police cars?" Pietro repeated, his brows furrowed.

"As I said before, we don't have all the details, the extent of her powers is truly unknown to us, but if we don't try to bring her in, she could eventually be a danger to those around her."

"Which is why we're sending you in." Fury noted.

"Is she an enhanced like us?" Wanda questioned as she looked back over to the picture of Thalia.

"We're not entirely sure," Hill answered, "The information we found indicated that she already had the ability when she was brought in by HYDRA. They sure were pretty damn thorough about her files when she was presumed dead."

"So…you want us to capture her?" Pietro probed, he wondered if the girl was as mean and dangerous as she sounded.

"We want you to try to convince her to come in, to consider joining the Avengers, we are needing all the help we can get before who knows what the hell happens next." Fury exclaimed.

"Should be pretty easy then." Pietro muttered.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Agent Hill interrupted, "She's known for her temper and rebellious attitude, she's definitely not one to just come over and 'talk'. She absolutely loathes HYDRA more than anything, and if she gets even the slightest idea that you have anything to do with them, she will try to kill you. Without a doubt."

"How reassuring." Wanda noted. She had to admit that she was a tiny bit nervous and she could see that her brother was as well, but what really bothered her was that Thalia was never mentioned by Strucker, not even a little bit. She didn't even know Thalia existed until today. It was as if Fury could sense their uneasiness now, he sighed and then got up from his chair.

"If you guys don't feel up to it then I can always wait until Rogers or Romanoff get back from one of their assignments, or maybe even Vision or Falcon would be more willing to get the job done."

"No," the twins said firmly in unison, which made Fury smile a little, "We will do it." Wanda said. They weren't kids anymore, especially not after what happened six months ago. It was time that they did something more for the Avengers, after all the tragedy they caused from wanting nothing more than worthless revenge. Fury then looked over at Maria and gestured for her to finish the debriefing.

"Thalia now lives in a town called Norwood, not too far from Boston and certainly not too far from here. We know that she works at a nearby Barns & Nobles and that she likes to keep to herself most of the time." She then handed each twin a manila folder that was filled with much more information about the places Thalia usually goes, even to the very address of the place she was currently living in, "Remember that you are to only use force as a last resort, we need her on our side."

"You leave tomorrow morning," Fury noted as they all made their way out of the room, "And be careful."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! Here's another chapter, hope you guys like it!**

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The flight to Massachusetts had been much shorter than they imagined it would be, but they figured with Tony Stark's advanced technology, they weren't just traveling on any normal jet. The pilot, one of the agents of the facility, had dropped them off in a deserted field nearby Norwood. He had told them that he would be at a nearby airport and would be waiting on standby and to just call him when they were ready to leave. They were only a few miles out from the main roads, but with Pietro carrying Wanda, the trip there only took a few seconds for them.

The town of Norwood seemed like any average place; where multiple shops lined the streets and people filled the sidewalks and a few cars drove past now and then. They knew immediately from just being there for less than 15 minutes that someplace like this was perfect for someone who wanted to blend in without getting too much attention.

"Where do you think we should look first?" Pietro asked as they walked down one of the streets and passed small businesses and people walking their dogs.

"This town isn't as small as I thought it would be, but from reading the reports Hill gave us, we don't have a lot of options to choose from." His sister answered just as they were crossing the street.

"What about her apartment? We should try there."

"No," She interjected, "If we go there now it would seem too obvious what we were trying to do. We need to see if we can meet her out in public, that way she won't be so quick to turn against us." Wanda's last words had made her brother feel slightly uneasy.

"How are you so sure she'll turn against us?" He asked. She simply shrugged as they kept on walking, occasionally looking into the windows of a shop or two.

"I just have a feeling."

When they figured that they were walking too much to know where they were going, they took a small break at a nearby coffee shop to look over a map of the town and some information they brought with them on Thalia. Pietro had offered to grab some coffee for her and tea for him and a few cakes while his sister was busy concentrating on where they should go next. He received the occasional glance from some young girls throughout the eatery, whether from his wispy white hair or something else, but he shrugged it off nonetheless.

"I think we should start at the…Barns & Noble's store." Wanda suggested, a little confused on the title of the place. Back at the facility before they left for their assignment, she had asked Maria about the place, on what kind of store it was. When she had told her it was a popular book store, she furrowed her brows in confusion, thinking that books had nothing to do with barns.

"And how far is that from where we are?" He asked between sips of tea and bites of coffee cake.

"Only a few miles actually, but we probably shouldn't get there with your help. We can't draw attention to ourselves." Wanda noted and Pietro slightly frowned from the mention of not being able to run all the way there.

"Alright," Pietro said glumly, "We'll take a cab I'm guessing?"

Pietro also didn't like the fact that they had to pay money to the taxi driver for driving them only a few miles when he could've just run there and arrive in about a minute flat, but he complied anyway. Upon looking at the front of the store, they were definitely impressed by the sheer size of the place. Two double doors that opened to two more double doors that led to a two-story building lined with nothing but books of all sizes and the heavy smell of coffee.

"When I thought bookstore, I thought of something much smaller." Wanda noted as they looked around from the front of the store.

"Do you think she is working today?" He brother questioned as he eyed a book that seemed to say 'Food Trucking for Dummies', which seemed a bit odd to him.

"We'll only find out if we look." And so they did.

They ventured throughout the store, walking up and down aisles and double-taking any girl that looked about their age with dark brown hair. Every now and then they would even stop for a moment when they eyed an interesting or weird book sitting on the shelf. Thirty minutes had already passed by and they were already done looking through the entire place.

"Okay so maybe she's not working here today." Pietro admitted as they both found comfy lounge chairs, surrounded by shelves of books, to sit in.

"We still have a few more places to check before we have to go to the apartment as a last resort."

"You know, it would be a lot easier if I can just run throughout town, we'll be able to find her quicker that way." He smirked slightly at his sister and she rolled her eyes.

"And you _know_ we can't do that. Just be patient, Pietro. We'll find her soon enough." He didn't like the sound of that; he was indeed very impatient due to the fact that he's used to getting everything done almost immediately. This mission was going to be a lot more tedious than he thought.

"I'm hungry." Pietro finally noted.

"You just ate."

"I know, but I'm always hungry." He flashed a smile at his sister, who couldn't help but smile back.

After grabbing another small bite to eat at a sandwich shop that was right next to the Barns & Nobles, Wanda decided they should hit up the next few places on the list that Agent Hill provided them; there was a record store, _another_ book store, and a small arcade place. There had also been a bar on the list as well, but since the bar had been located right across the street of Thalia's apartment, they thought they'd look there last before actually going to the apartment.

"She sure does like books, no?" Pietro exclaimed while looking at the location of the other book store.

"Books are fun, if you like keeping to yourself. It's no surprise to me." Wanda said as they stood on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant, trying to get the attention of a Taxi driver, to which she did so pretty quickly.

"Let's say we do find her pretty quickly," Pietro started as they got into the Taxi, "What are we going to say to her? You heard Maria, she's not going to just talk to us." This had also been bothering Wanda as well; if anything she would just use her power to convince her to come, or send her into a dream, but she didn't want to do that unless it was absolutely necessary.

"I don't know Pietro, but we have to try." She said trying to sound confident to convince even herself.

They spend the next few hours searching at the different places Maria Hill had said that Thalia has casually been to. Each and every place ended with more disappointment as they found absolutely nothing. There were a few occasions where they thought they had found her, but there were more girls with brown hair in the town of Norwood than they thought. Wanda could tell that her brother was starting to get impatient, following pieces of information that led to nothing. She had to admit that this mission was starting to feel like nothing but a game of 'Where's Waldo?' Their last place to look was the bar located across the street from where Thalia lived.

"If we don't find her there, at least we can get a drink." Pietro laughed. The thought of a drink indeed did sound nice to Wanda, the last time they were able to completely relax was almost a whole month ago when they took down another huge HYDRA base.

"We need to stay focused, Pietro." Wanda scolded.

"Yeah, yeah."

Night was falling quickly on them, and where Thalia lived seemed to be on the bad side of town. The streets were run down and littered with trash and stray dogs were scrounging around for food. All in all, most of it seemed completely abandoned apart from the bar, apartment complex, and a few other small stores.

"You sure this is the right place?" Pietro asked as they were getting out of another Taxi in front of the designated bar.

"I don't think Maria would be giving us wrong information."

The bar didn't seem like much; the parking lot had been practically empty, and if it wasn't for the lights inside, anyone could've mistaken it for being one of the many abandoned places around. Wanda was the first to enter slowly into the bar with her brother in suit, and inside, there were a lot more people than they thought there would be. Tables and booths seemed to line the entire place and people were scattered all over the place. Music played loudly just like any regular bar would, and in reality the place didn't seem as bad as it did on the outside.

"This place isn't so bad." Pietro noted as he looked at his sister. He then immediately noticed the startled look on her face; she had been looking intently at something, someone. Pietro followed his sister's line of sight all the way to the back of the bar. His breath caught in his chest as he finally laid eyes on her, sitting in the very back corner. She seemed to be pretty content, casually chatting away with another girl sitting across the table.

They finally found Thalia.

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 **They finally found her! What do you think the twins will do now? :) Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's another chapter for you guys! This one's a little longer than the other ones. Enjoy!**

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They immediately rushed to the bar to have a seat, afraid of drawing attention from just standing by the door too long. This was it, they finally found her, and they felt relieved but also anxious at the same time. Wanda and Pietro gave each other the 'what do we do now?' look.

"What can I get for you guys tonight?" Suddenly the bar tender came up to them and was flashing a welcoming smile; he seemed younger than he should be to work at a bar. Wanda hesitated at first, she wanted to discuss the fact that Thalia was sitting nearly a few yards away from them, but her brother answered for her before she could say anything.

"Two white Russians, please." He said as he smiled slightly at his sister.

"Comin' right up, nice accent by the way." The man said as he left to go make their drinks.

"Our accents." Wanda muttered, "What if Thalia knows about Sokovia? She'll figure us out right away."

"I can fake an American accent, let me talk to her."

"Since when did you know how to do that?" She asked, a little bit puzzled.

"Lots of practice from making fun of Tony Stark whenever he visits." He smiled proudly and Wanda couldn't help but laugh at his childishness. The bartender came back with their two drinks and Pietro had asked for two more drinks to be made and started a tab.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Wanda questioned as she threw back the remainder of her drink.

"How many times do I have to remind you that I'm the older twin?" He remarked with a small smirk which made her roll her eyes at him. He also finished his drink quickly just as the bartender came back with two more drinks.

"I'll be watching from here, okay? Be careful, Pietro." She warned; he nodded slightly as he took the two drinks in his hands as he made his way over to the back of the bar. _Here goes nothing._

When Pietro got closer, it seemed that Thalia's friend was doing most of the talking, and she sat there nodding and smiling to whatever her friend was saying. He swallowed hard as he got closer to their table; Thalia hadn't noticed his presence yet, mostly because her babbling friend got her complete attention. His heart beat quickened, not knowing what he should say first; he couldn't help but think that Thalia was absolutely stunning when he finally got a good look at her. Her long hair fell around her shoulders in messy waves and her grey eyes were covered in eyeliner, making them stand out even more. She had on a worn out black jacket and what looked like a white tank top with some writing on it underneath. It was when he was only a few feet away when Thalia finally noticed him. His heart nearly stopped when they locked eyes, and for a brief moment he thought he might lose complete focus. She scanned him up and down quickly and smiled slightly. _Was this a good thing?_ Her friend then stopped mid-sentence when she noticed Thalia wasn't paying her any attention anymore and looked over at Pietro as well.

"Well, hellooo there." Her friend explained with a huge grin on her face, "Are those drinks for us?" She asked, eyeing the drinks he had been holding.

"Actually yes," He said while throwing on the most charismatic smile, "Thought I'd buy a drink for some lovely ladies tonight."

"Awwww really? You're so sweet!" The girl shouted as she motioned for him to sit down next to her, and so he did. He passed the drink to both Thalia and her friend and they both took a delightful sip.

"So anyway," The girl started, "My name's Ashley, and this is my friend Katherine." Ashley introduced as she took another sip of her alcoholic drink.

"Nice to meet you both, name's…Pete." He kicked himself mentally when he almost blurted out his real name.

"Nice hair." Thalia exclaimed as she eyed him and laid back on her chair.

"Oh this?" Pietro ask as he pointed to his silver locks, "Thought I'd try something new."

"It's gorgeous! It toootally suits you." Ashley noted as she stared dreamily at him.

"So how did nice girls like you end up in a place like this?" He asked.

"At Roylie's? _I_ actually wanted to go somewhere in the nicer part of town, closer to where we worked, but Katherine insisted that we come her." Ashley commented while glaring at her friend across the table, to which she only smiled.

"Come on Ashley," Thalia started, "How's a girl like you supposed to toughen up when you don't even go to the 'bad side' of town." She air quoted the word 'bad side' and laughed slightly before taking another drink. Pietro could tell she was already a slightly bit intoxicated; she had a slight blush on her cheeks and she seemed a lot more relaxed than she was made out to be.

"So Pete," Thalia's voice was smooth like honey, "How did _you_ end up in a place like this? I've been here plenty of times and I've never seen you here."

"Yeah, she _definitely_ would've remembered you." Ashley winked and Thalia just rolled her eyes.

"Well tonight's actually my first night here," He stated casually, "I was supposed to meet a few of my friends here, but I don't think they're coming…" He then faked a frown.

"You poor thing!" Ashley gasped, "Well it's a good thing we came here tonight, huh Katherine?"

"Mhmm."

Thalia wasn't nearly as drunk as her friend Ashley; she kept scooting closer and closer to him with each passing minute and he could smell the alcohol right off of her breath.

On the other hand, Wanda couldn't keep her eyes off of the three in the back corner of the bar. She was worried and anxious, afraid that any moment Thalia would suddenly do something that could put her and her brother in danger. The alcohol definitely was making her more relaxed from what she could see, but reading her became more difficult as each thought came and went faster than her brother could run. She hoped that her brother's charm could be enough to win her over.

They all continued chatting and making good conversation, to which Pietro was glad for. He also continued to order drinks for the three of them, Ashley being the one to drink most of everything he ordered and Thalia knowingly steadying herself. Pietro could continue drinking as well and not even feel the slightest difference considering the rate of his metabolism.

It wasn't long before Ashley had been completely wasted out of her mind and needed to go home before she either passed out or puked all over the place.

"I don't wanna go home Katy…" She moaned as Thalia sighed and struggled to get her friend out of her seat.

"Ashley, you need to go home, I'm calling you a cab okay?" She stated softly, but her friend just pulled away screaming 'no' like a four year old.

"This is so embarrassing," She muttered as she shook her head and quickly dialed a phone number for a taxi and gave them directions to the bar. "I am so sorry about this." She said towards Pietro.

"No worries," He smiled, "You need help with her?" He asked as he pointed to Ashley, who seemed to be sliding out of her chair.

"That would be really great Pete, thank you." She stated with a small smile and they locked eyes again for a moment and Pietro could feel his stomach flip upside down, a feeling he wasn't used to. He then proceeded to scoop Ashley easily into his arms.

"Ooooh, you're so strong!" Ashley squealed as Pietro carefully carried her out of the bar, getting the attention of a few people in the place, including Wanda. Confused was definitely an understatement on explaining what Wanda felt at that moment as she watched her brother carrying some random girl that _wasn't_ Thalia slowly out of the bar.

It was then when she locked eyes for the first time with Thalia as she followed her brother in tow; the cold stare from her stone-grey eyes seemed like forever, and that's when Wanda was able to clearly read her mind: she figured it out. Thalia was on to Pietro almost the entire time; she was much clever than Wanda gave her credit for, she had to do something. But this wasn't the place to react; there were innocent people, and confronting Thalia right away could lead to casualties. She hoped that her brother would lead her somewhere where there were no people to try and reason with Thalia, before she gets aggressive.

"Make sure she gets up to her door safely, will you?" Thalia asked the cab driver, who nodded reassuringly and drove off, with Ashley screaming 'bye Katy and cute guy Pete!'

"She sure likes her alcohol." Pietro stated with a small laugh.

"Yeah well, try repeating this every Friday night." Thalia remarked and looked up at him. He stared at her for more than he probably should have been, but the lighting of the moon seemed to make her grey eyes almost glow and her fair skin milky white. The rest of her ensemble seemed a little odd to him; high-waisted shorts with thigh high stockings and high-top sneakers to wrap everything together. Odd and different, but nice.

"You wanna walk me back to my place?" Her question suddenly broke him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, sure." He replied almost immediately as they started walking down the street, away from the bar. Wanda had been following them carefully, relieved that they were walking farther and farther away from the bar. But the direction that they were going didn't seem right; they weren't walking towards the apartment complex, they were walking _by_ it.

"Where are we going?" Pietro asked as he noticed they were in the middle of an abandoned lot. Thalia turned and gave him a confused look, almost innocent.

"Just thought this seemed like the perfect place." She stated quietly as she stepped closer to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, causing him to tense up.

"I don't understand-"Pietro wasn't expecting this whatsoever, he fumbled over his words, his accent slipping out.

"I knew it." She whispered as she slid her hands slowly down his chest, and before he knew it, his body was sent shooting back several yards. It all happened so fast, the sheer force that came from her and the impact to his chest. Luckily his fast reflexes caused him to land on his feet.

"You think I didn't know?" Thalia spat as she started walking towards him, "You think I didn't notice you and that girl coming in from the bar and immediately eyeing me like some target? Then you thought you could just waltz up to me and my friend and pretend to be some 'friendly stranger'?"

"No wait Thalia, you don't understand, we-"

"How the hell do you know my name?" She almost shouted, her eyes raging with anger. It was then when Wanda showed herself from where she had been hiding, walking over to her brother and standing in front of him in a protective stance as he got up.

"We know all about you, Thalia Peterson." Wanda exclaimed as her hands started radiating red swirls of energy, "We don't want to fight, we're just here to talk."

Thalia gave out a humorless laugh, "If HYDRA sent you, you can go back to them and tell them I'm not interested in being their lab rat anymore. Leave me alone, this way no one gets hurt." She turned and started walking away, but Pietro ran and appeared in front of her in a split second.

"We're not from HYDRA Thalia, we don't want to hurt you." He looked with pleading eyes but only to be returned by her cold stare.

"I said LEAVE!" She yelled and readied what looked like another hit, but he dodged quickly by flashing to the left a few yards. Wanda then used her powers to hurl a small metal trash can towards her left, but Thalia's reflexes were also quick. The trash can traveled to just a few feet from her face, but was ricocheted by some sort of purple force-field that protected her.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that." Thalia remarked as she started towards Wanda. Pietro needed to protect his sister, so he had no choice when he shot by Thalia and knocked her down. Her body hit the gravel pretty hard and for a few seconds she was dazed by the sudden impact. It had been a long time since she was caught off guard. She groaned in pain as she tried to get the air back into her lungs.

"You need to do it now." Pietro ordered towards Wanda, "We don't have any other choice." Knowing what he'd meant by that, she sighed solemnly and walked towards Thalia, who was still on the ground. She knelt in front of her and they locked eyes again, "I know…I know who you are." Thalia whispered, almost so quietly that Wanda could barely hear her.

"I'm sorry about this." Wanda muttered and flicked her wrist. A small red currant of energy passed from her fingertips and seeped into Thalia's head. Her eyes turned red and she blinked in confusion. The twins backed away slowly as Thalia started getting up from the ground, holding her head and stumbling a little bit.

"Did you do it?" Pietro asked.

"Of course I did." She replied, feeling regretful. They studied Thalia with caution as she stood there with her head facing the ground. Silence hung in the air for a few moments until they heard a small crying sound.

"Please." It was coming from Thalia, "Please stop." She was about to fall backwards, but Pietro caught her within a blink of an eye. At that moment her body seemed so fragile and weak and when he slowly lifted her head, he could see tears slowly running down her face.

"Please, no more." She uttered, half sobbing. Her eyes were still glowing red and Pietro wondered what his sister had showed her. It was then that Thalia looked up into Pietro's eyes but she seemed to be looking through him, "I can't take this anymore, Baron. Please." She begged. Her body slowly sunk to the cold floor and she started sobbing, "Just let them go. I'll do anything." This was the first time that Wanda felt like she truly tortured someone; she did another flick of her wrist towards Thalia, and within a few seconds her body fell limp to the floor, completely passed out.

"She mentioned Baron." Pietro said as he slowly picked a sleeping Thalia up into his arms bridal style, "Strucker."

"We better get her back to Fury quickly, I don't know how long I can keep her asleep."

Pietro nodded at his sister's remarks as he looked upon Thalia's tear stained face and wondered what exactly Strucker could've done to cause her so much pain.

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 **Seemed like Thalia's drunk friend liked Pietro a liiiittle too much! Also what do you think's gonna happen when she's brought to the Avengers? Please let me know what you guys think so far I'd really appreciate it!**


	4. Chapter 4

Luckily the flight back to the Avengers' facility didn't take very long; sitting in a small Quinn jet with a hostile sleeping girl was enough to make anyone nervous. Meanwhile at the base, Fury and Maria busied themselves by getting everything ready, from setting up a private room for Thalia to getting in contact with the other Avengers in the middle of the night. Steve and Nat were back from one of their assignments, and Rhodey, Sam and Vision were there as well. Tony was already on his way from his home, feeling eager that he was called up for something instead of struggling with sleep for the night.

When the Twins arrived with Thalia, they made sure to immediately inform Fury of what had happened. That their attempts at persuading her were unsuccessful, resulting her to attack them, under the impression that they were sent from HYDRA.

"Should we try to restrain her then?" Agent Hill asked Fury as they were walking along with the twins, transporting Thalia on a gurney to the private room.

"No. Restraining her will make things a lot worse than they already are. Steve's going to come in here once the girl gets settled-he wants to talk to her. He's a pretty good negotiator, shouldn't have to worry about a thing." Fury answered and Maria only nodded in agreement. If anyone had even the slightest chance of doing any kind of convincing, it would be Steve.

When they reached the room, Thalia was still sleeping soundly. Not once did she shift or stir during the whole transition. Even as a few agents proceeded to strap her to devices that monitored her heart rate, vitals, etc.

"Keep an eye on her," Fury ordered, "Maria and I will inform the others and bring Steve in."

"Shouldn't be too long, and Romanoff is here." Maria added as they both left the room as Natasha walked in.

"She's quite the deep sleeper." Nat noted sarcastically, looking over the numerous monitors that hovered above and around the bed.

"I'm not able to keep her asleep much longer." Wanda warned, her wrists twitching slightly towards Thalia. A small wave of red energy slowly pulling away from beneath her eyes.

"Back in Norwood," Pietro started quietly, unable to take his eyes off of the sleeping girl "What did you show her? A fear?"

"No." Wanda admitted almost immediately, "It was…a memory." Her brother looked at her quizzically, but before she was able to explain herself, Steve arrived in the room along with Fury and Maria at his heels. He reached the foot of Thalia's bed in a few strides and looked over her with a pained expression on his face.

"She's just a kid." He uttered.

"Even kids these days go through things well beyond their years," Nat spoke, "And besides, she's about the same age as Wanda and Pietro." She pointed to the Twins, who seemed a little tired and on edge at the same time.

"I'm guessing you guys didn't get much of a chance to do some convincing, huh?" Steve asked them.

"Of course she did," Pietro said sarcastically, crossing his arms, "She listened to our every word and invited us over to her place for some drinks afterwards. We had a wonderful time."

It was then when Wanda suddenly winced in pain, with Pietro at her side in a flash.

"What's wrong?" He rubbed her shoulders gently, "What can I do?"

"I can't keep this up much longer," She groaned, "She's fighting hard against it now. It hurts." She cradled her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

"It's okay Wanda," Steve reassured, "You don't have to hold on anymore." She looked a bit anxious from his remark, not sure if she should or not.

"Captain's orders." Steve smiled slightly, "and I'm gonna need everyone to clear the room and wait outside; it'll be easier to talk to her with less people." And with that everyone did what he said and cleared the room. Although Pietro had been a little hesitant at first, he did what he was told when he realized his sister was in need of some rest.

Once the door closed behind the last person, Steve could see that Thalia was about to wake up as she stirred slightly and furrowed her brows. He quickly pulled up a chair and sat next to her on the bed, hoping and praying that he was going to be able to talk his way out of this mess.

"Thalia." He said quietly, and she groaned and stirred some more.

"Thalia, wake up." He tried again, and within a few seconds her eyes fluttered open. For a good while she starred at the ceiling blankly, still disoriented. She then blinked a few times and turned her head slowly towards Steve and stared at him with her grey eyes. It was like waiting for a ticking time bomb for him, and he had to admit he felt the anxiety growing inside his chest. A few groans escaped her as turned her head back towards the ceiling.

"Am I dying?" She spoke finally, not asking anyone in particular, her voice scratchy and dry. Steve chuckled slightly, knowing that she must still be half asleep.

"No, you're alive and well. How are you feeling?" He asked calmly. Thalia tried her best to lift herself up on the bed, but faltered when a shooting pain erupted through her head.

"Ow." She instantly grabbed her skull, "I feel like shit." It seemed that now she finally gained full consciousness, her eyes scanning around the room. "Where the hell am I? Who the hell are you?" Her eyes setting on Steve once more, face twisted from confusion.

"I'm Captain Rogers, you're here at the Avengers Facility." He responded, hoping that keeping a calm demeanor she wouldn't panic. She stared at him plainly for a few seconds, and then her eyes slowly widened as she registered what he said.

"You're-You're Captain America." She pointed, completely dumbfounded. She blinked a few more times to make sure it was all real, "If I'm not dead, I must be dreaming."

"You're not dreaming, Thalia." He reassured. But hearing her real name leave his lips had ignited an anger from inside, washing over the pain and drowsiness that she felt.

She recoiled from him, "How do you know my name?" Her voice came out in a low tone.

"What do you remember?" He asked, completely ignoring her question. She looked around again, searching for the words to say or trying to remember what happened last.

"I was…at work and then after that I went to the bar with my friend…" Her face twisted, trying hard to remember, "And then I woke up here. Did something bad happen?" She asked, figuring that only Captain American would pop up whenever something went terribly wrong.

"No, nothing like that. You were actually brought here, we've been keeping an eye on you for a while now." Her face scrunched up again. She was confused and angry and felt slightly uncomfortable at his mentioning of her being watched. She wondered just how long 'for a while' meant.

"How do you know my name?!" She brought up again, this time with more force to her words. She wasn't going to let it slip past her that easily.

"We know all about you."

"We? Who's 'we'?"

"The Avengers. And you're here because we think you'll make a good asset to our team. My team."

"Wait, what do you mean you know all about me?" She shook her head, trying to push out the information that was being fed to her. It was all too much. Her head was spinning, wishing that this really is a dream; that she had just passed out at the bar and within a few more moments she would wake up, drooling on the wooden table with music blaring in the background.

"I mean almost everything. We know that you went under the alias of Katherine Jeter and that your _real_ name is Thalia Peterson. We also know that almost five years ago, you were captured by HYDRA and experimented by none other than Baron Von Strucker. You-"

"Don't." She warned, "Just don't."

"Sorry." Steve mentally scolded himself, thinking that he probably gave out too much emotional information too soon. There was a brief moment of silence as Thalia curled her knees to her chest, like she was suddenly drowning in thoughts of HYDRA.

"If you're looking for more information on HYDRA, you've got no luck with me. I don't know anything. So you can just let me go now." She said quietly.

"We're not looking for information. As I said before, we think you'd make a good addition to our team." She then gave out a humorless laugh, like the idea was just too ridiculous.

She scoffed, "You're joking right? This is a joke, if not a dream."

"No jokes here. I meant what I said."

"Well if you claim to know everything about me, then you surely know that I can probably kill you right now if I wanted to." She threatened as she stared him down. In the back part of her mind she was well aware of the many wires that restrained her arms, making it very difficult to make a quick escape if she wanted to. If she were to try to break out now, without even the slightest knowledge of where she was or how much gun power they had, she might not even make it out alive.

"You probably can, but you won't."

"Oh? And why is that?" She questioned, still trying to sound confident on the matter of her abilities.

"Because you're not the monster Strucker wanted you to be." He said, and for once she didn't have an immediate reply. It was as if his words had struck a chord inside her, the words repeating in her head like a broken record. She fought the urge of oncoming tears as flashes of her years with Strucker and her family rushed through her mind. She didn't want to be a monster, she tried so hard for years to not become one and as much as she hated the world recently, she would never end up becoming anything like Strucker wanted her to be. Just like Steve said.

"Can I have some water, Captain?" She asked, her façade dissolving with no success. There really was no use on trying to threaten her way out of this. And right now, there was nothing more important to her than to satisfy her burning, dry throat with some water.

Steve held his hand up with a smile, "Please, call me Steve." He left his chair to go to the faucet on the far side of the room to retrieve a glass of water for her. She took it cautiously from him, a thin line forming on her face before she took the longest drink from the glass. Steve knew that it was the next best thing to a smile from her as she sighed happily, handing him the empty tumbler.

"That man took everything from me," Thalia finally said after a long moment of silence, "and when I heard he was killed by this Ultron guy, I went completely livid, knowing that I wouldn't even have the satisfaction of killing him one day." She didn't intend for her words to come out so harsh. Maybe she was a monster after all.

"He's done some terrible things, and I'm sorry for whatever he did to you for all those years, but I for one am glad the guys dead." Steve admitted, and then there was more silence in the room, but Steve had been patient with her.

"And so…what? You want me to join your team? The Avengers?" She questioned, the words feeling weird coming out of her mouth. She looked up at him and he simply just nodded.

"What if I choose not to? Will you guys bring me home?"

"We're not HYDRA, we won't hold you against your will. You're free to choose. But mind you that if you do choose to go back to your old life, we will still be keeping tabs on you. Without you here, you're a potential threat to us and a lot of people."

"I won't be a threat."

"You're dangerous."

"No, I'm not."

"Really? And what about the arrest a few weeks ago in Norwood?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but she really had no excuse for that. Her temper got the best of her and she lost control for just a second. She sighed and shook her head.

"You guys really do know everything, huh?"

"Not everything, but we try to know as much as we can."

"But what about my job? My apartment?"

"All will be taken care of."

Deep down there was a feeling of doubt that she might not be able to be the hero, or whatever it is, that he thought she had the chance to be. The nervousness of knowing that at any moment, she could hurt someone, or let someone down. Like her family. She looked at Steve and studied him for a long time.

She knew Steve Rogers, or otherwise known as Captain America. His name had trickled through HYDRA a handful of times during her time there. She knew how much Strucker hated him, along with all the other Avengers. And maybe, just maybe, that this whole ordeal was some sort of ironic sign that she needed this. Whether it's a way to get back at Strucker even in the afterlife or a way to do something with her life. A second chance. To move on.

But why was he trying to help her? He didn't owe her anything, and yet he was answering all of her questions without hesitation, like he had nothing to hide. Thalia could feel the sense of leadership radiating off of him and she couldn't help but think that if she _was_ to join them, things might not be so bad, knowing that he was there.

"I-I don't know Steve…I think you might've gotten me wrong. I'm no hero. I never was or even had the chance to be one. Strucker forced me to be nothing but absolute destruction, to be something expendable to them. I can't guarantee you that I'll even be of any help. I don't know how to protect people.

But one thing I'm sure of is that I'm sick and tired of wasting my life away, doing the same damn thing every day for the past six months and it's exhausting. I'm tired of waiting for my time to die just so I can be with my family. I don't want to think like that anymore; that's not what I want and it sure as hell wouldn't make my family proud. We were all innocent people once, even me."

"We'll teach you control, Thalia. And if the Avengers thing doesn't work out for you, we'll let you go back home, no questions asked. But if you do stay, I can tell you that there's no better job in the world knowing that you're the only thing standing between innocent people and people like Strucker. That there is the one thing I strive to fight for, every day. " Steve exclaimed proudly and Thalia couldn't resist a small smile; it was like he was saying everything she wanted to hear. If Captain Rogers had any other job in the world, Thalia could guess that it would be some kind of sales person; with a dashing smile and the knowledge of saying just the right thing.

"Like I said before, I can't guarantee you anything, but I want to make sure that no one else like Strucker ever gets their hands on innocent people again. I want an end to come to HYDRA, and if that's the Avengers' mission, it's mine too."


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's another chapter for you guys! This ones a little bit longer than all of the other ones. Please read and let me know what you think!**

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Steve wasn't aware he had been holding in his breath until he heard the determination in Thalia's voice as she said she wanted an end to come to HYDRA for the sake of good people. He knew from the very beginning that she wasn't a violent person. Dangerous, yes, but no one that's gone through Strucker's experiments comes back completely normal. She was misunderstood, thrown back into the world with no purpose and Steve knew they had to bring her in before she was led off in the wrong direction of doing the right thing, like the twins.

"I'm really glad you decided to give this a shot, Thalia." Steve noted, "Or should we call you Katherine?"

She shook her head, "No, Thalia was my birth name and I'd like to be called that again. Katherine was just an alias I came up. Surprisingly, the whole 'change your identity' thing wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It was getting back into the States that was the hard part." An uncomfortable shiver went down her spine as she recalled the times she had to steal from a few wealthy strangers just to get enough money to return home. She wasn't too proud of that.

"And you'd you manage that?"

"Don't ask." She didn't meet Steve's gaze, "You get desperate when you're running from HYDRA."

"They thought you were dead," Steve remarked, "Why?"

"That's not really something I want to get into either." She said quietly to which Steve only nodded.

"I understand. You're not obligated to tell us what happened in your years at HYDRA, but know that if you remember anything that could be of importance, please let us know." He informed, and she simply shook her head.

"Well, on a lighter note," Steve started, trying to change the grim subject, "Most of the team's outside. I had them leave the room before you woke up so you wouldn't be so overwhelmed. I'd like for you to meet them now. If that's okay." She hesitated at first, looking at the door and imagining a group of super heroes just on the other side, but then she relaxed when she realized there was nothing to be worried about. They were the ones wanting _her_ to join the team, she didn't have to worry about impressing anybody. She probably didn't look the best either.

Before she was able to leave, Steve had to gently remove the wires that were attached to her arm. She then got off the bed, grabbed her jacket that hung over a chair, and followed Steve out of the room.

Everyone had been waiting impatiently in the hallway and considering it was in the middle of the night, not a lot of other people were working at the facility. When the door finally opened, everyone turned their heads to look at Steve as he came out first and then their gazes fell to the girl that emerged behind him.

"Leave it up to Mr. Stars and Stripes to talk to the kid, probably gave her one of his glorious speeches," Tony Stark was the first one to talk, "But luckily for you we had all this time to gaze into each other's eyes and talk about our feelings." Steve then sighed and gave Tony one of his 'really, Stark?' looks.

"I'm sorry we took so long, it was my fault." Thalia said quietly as she looked at the first few faces in front of her.

"Don't be sorry," Sam reassured as he smiled slightly and walked towards her, "We're used to not getting any sleep, believe me." He then stuck out his hand to introduce himself as Sam Wilson, or otherwise known as Falcon. "All of us have heard much about you."

"Yeah, glad you're on the team now," Rhodey said, "Name's James Rhodes but you can call me Rhodey, or War Machine." She continued to shake Rhodey's hand too, nodding her head. She really couldn't think of anything to say at this point. She was never great on introductions.

"When he tells you one of his War Machine stories, make sure you laugh at the end," Tony joked as he too shook Thalia's hand, "Tony Stark. Iron Man." She regarded him, his smug brown eyes locking with her grey ones. She knew all about the narcissistic billionaire even with the exception with being kept from the outside world for years. But in reality, who in the world didn't these days?

"Soon you'll come to find out that there's way too much testosterone on this team," The red-headed female smirked as she regarded Thalia, "Natasha Romanoff." Then Agent Hill, Fury, and Vision proceeded to introduce themselves quickly. Thalia was having a hard time taking all this in; there were a lot more introductions than she thought there would be and not even the right ones. Where was the Hulk? Or Thor? She could've sworn there was another one too. Those were the Avenger members she was familiar with. The one's HYDRA never seemed to shut up about. But she had to remind herself that it was late at night and maybe the others were too busy sleeping. She was feeling a little bit tired herself.

Everyone was so busy chatting amongst themselves that the twins still had yet to meet her, stuck in the back of the group. They didn't mind, they were always so capable of blending into the background unnoticed. It wasn't until Steve realized that Thalia had yet to meet the ones that brought her in.

"Thalia, I want you to meet the newest members before you." He stated as everyone simmered down and let Pietro and Wanda come forward. They were hoping she would greet them the same awkwardly friendly way as she greeted the others, but the next turn of events were not what they were expecting. When Thalia first locked eyes with Pietro and Wanda. She felt light headed suddenly; the familiar faces of the silver-haired man and girl clad in red pulled more unwanted memories out too quickly. A memory of them at the bar, and another of them long ago in HYDRA. An uneasiness settled over her, making her want to scream out in anger.

"What the hell are they doing here?" She called out suddenly, and the chattering noise of the hallway died down.

"Well, isn't she a ray of sunshine." Tony remarked quietly.

"Stark." Steve warned.

"What are they doing here?" She repeated as she looked at Steve. They all had confused faces, including the Twins.

"They're the ones that brought you here." Steve answered, trying to understand why she was so angry.

"You're meaning to tell me the Twins are a part of the Avengers?"

"Wait," Wanda interrupted, "you know who we are?" Thalia then gave her and her brother a look of disgust.

"Do I know who you are? More than I would've wanted to actually." She crossed her arms, a stern gaze directed towards them, "The Maximoff twins, Strucker's prized pupils and his only 'miracle'. The ones who willingly volunteered for his experiments. You both…you both make me sick." Her voice faltered at the end. She wasn't sure for a moment if she meant it or not

They both looked at her in disbelief from the anger that radiated off of Thalia, "We had no other choice." Wanda uttered softly.

Wanda's words had set her off even more; she couldn't understand why the twins had made her so angry. No, she did. She felt envious. She felt nothing but bitterness towards all those years of constantly being compared to them. She could practically hear Strucker's voice echo through her head:

' _You should be more compliant, like the twins.'_

' _The twins were never so disobedient, like you.'_

"You wanted power. I get that. But for what? To kill Stark?" There was a flash of remorse in their eyes at Thalia's words, "Yeah, I knew all about that too. About how you wished to end the existence of him solely on the fact that he created the very nuclear weapons that were used on Sokovia. You'd think that you'd rather turn your anger towards the people that used those weapons, not the guy that created them." She then pointed at Tony, "Guy's still here, I can only imagine that you both realized how idiotic your theory was."

She could hear her voice becoming louder as her words echoed off the walls of the small hallway. She couldn't shake off her anger, it rumbled through her body like tremors. If she didn't get it all out, she wasn't sure what she would do.

"We made mistakes, we know that. But we're trying to make up for the damage we caused." Wanda explained solemnly.

"We suffered just like you did," Pietro added, "We know what you've gone through."

Thalia gave out a humorless laugh at his comment. How wrong they were.

"Oh please, you were treated like royalty compared to how he treated me." She spat as she walked closer to Pietro and looked hard into his eyes, "You know nothing of what I've been through." It was then when Wanda couldn't help herself from looking into Thalia's mind, and all she could see was pain, pain that Strucker had caused.

"He tortured you." She blurted out unintentionally. She could've sworn there was a flash of fear in Thalia's eyes, but was quickly replaced by more rage.

"You get the hell out of my head." Thalia lowly, taking a few small steps towards Wanda. The sudden movement put everyone on edge and Steve knew this short rant was going to end badly if something wasn't done.

"Okay. Okay. Enough." He exclaimed as he stepped in front of Thalia and looked at her with concern, "We've all made mistakes, every last one of us, but what happened in our past doesn't make up for the people we are today. What we do now, what we fight for and live for now, _that_ makes up for who we are today. And I'm sure you don't want your past to define you, Thalia, or were you forgetting what you told me just a little while ago?"

Thalia thought long and hard about Steve's comment; it was true, she didn't want her past to define who she was today, she wanted to get past that. She let her temper get the best of her, _again,_ and she took it out on the very people who went through almost the same thing she did.

"Sorry." She muttered shortly, her eyes glued to the floor. The hall had fallen painfully silent and Thalia felt the embarrassment rolling in under her skin. This first impression couldn't have gone any worse. The only thing that even had the slightest chance of saving her ass from all this is to swallow her pride, and hope that nothing else would go wrong. "I let my anger get the best of me. It was just a little overwhelming for me, meeting all of you. It's still no excuse, I know that." She then looked at the twins and tried searching for words to say, "I don't know what else to say besides that I'm an asshole. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Pietro forced a smile, "You don't have to apologize."

"Everything you said about us was true." His sister added. But before Thalia could even reply to that, Fury spoke.

"I think every one's a little on edge tonight. It's late and we're all tired, why don't we all call it a night and start fresh tomorrow?"

"Guess I'll have to find something to do for four hours." Tony noted sarcastically.

"No, Fury's right. We should all be getting home and going to bed." Nat exclaimed and everyone nodded in agreement. They were all tired, including Thalia even though she had just woken up not too long ago. Sam, Rhodey, and Vision had said their goodnights to everyone and were the first the leave them. Tony had left shortly after as well, with the addition of some snarky comments about him being the team's number one asshole and to not even dare Thalia to take his place.

"Agent Hill would you care to show Thalia the room she'll be staying in? I've got some things I need to discuss with Romanoff here." Fury informed as he and Nat regarded each other.

"Of course." She answered and with that they left the premises too.

"I have my own room?" Thalia piped in.

"I'll be happy to show you whenever you're ready." Maria answered as she straightened up. Thalia then looked to Steve, a little hesitant on going.

"You'll be fine," He reassured with a smile, "She doesn't bite." Thalia nodded and turned her attention towards the twins, who still seemed a bit anxious.

She regarded them without saying any additional words, afraid she had already said enough for the night. It was awkward to say the least. The entire night was. Thalia had the sudden urge to get out of there as soon as possible as the lingering silence only made her uncomfortable.

Pietro wished he could say more to her, but he had no idea what he could possibly say to make this night any better. Wanda then pulled on his sleeve, letting him know that it was best to give her space right now, and so they left to their rooms for the night.

"I should probably catch up with Fury and Romanoff to see what they're discussing before I turn in for the night," Steve mentioned and then looked to Thalia, "Get a good night's sleep, I'll see you tomorrow. And…welcome to the team." The corners of Thalia's lips twitched slightly. A smile was wanting to come out, but it never came. Instead, she uttered a small 'thanks' before Steve said goodnight once more to the both of them and lightly jogged off down the hallway.

"Well I guess that leaves just the two of us," Maria said as she smiled tightly towards Thalia, "Ready to go?"

"Yes." And off they went.

"So…do all of the Avengers live here?" Thalia asked as they walked down a few hallways and made multiple turns on their way to what Thalia could only guess was her 'room'.

"Only some of them; the twins, Vision, Captain Rogers and Romanoff stay here. The others have their own place away from the facility."

"What about Thor?"

"He's in Asgard." She answered simply, and Thalia furrowed her brows in confusion. _Where was Asgard?_

"The Hulk?"

"Currently M.I.A. since Sokovia," Maria said with a slight disappointment in her voice, "I wouldn't mention him around Agent Romanoff though." Thalia doubly noted that and wondered why she shouldn't mention him around the red-head. They walked in silence for a while, arriving to an intricate looking elevator and going down a few floors. To her disappointment, no music played.

"I still don't know what do to." Thalia finally mentioned, not being able to stand the quietness. The silence had only occupied her with her thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...I haven't even gotten the chance to quit my job or-"

"That's already taken care of." Agent Hill stated.

"What about my car? My apartment?"

"We'll provide you with a new car as you see fit, if you'd like. We should have your belongings here by tomorrow." Maria then pulled out her special tablet and seemed to be making a few notes as if reminding herself about the fact.

"Do I get full dental with this job as well?" Thalia joked, trying to make light of the conversation as they were prompted to exit the elevator with a soft 'ding' that indicated they were at their floor.

"You'll be provided with anything you need, and if that means medical and dental needs, that won't be a problem." Thalia's eyes widened in surprise, not really expecting a serious reply from her, but now she has full medical and dental coverage. Then Thalia thought to herself on what the name of the insurance would be: Avengers Insurance, Earth's Mightiest Coverage.

When they arrived at the room, Thalia already could tell that the space they provided for her was a lot bigger than she needed it to be. It was certainly bigger than the dingy shack she called apartment was back in Norwood. There was what seemed like a small living room with a black L shaped sofa in front of a black entertainment system that held a 60 inch TV. Thalia walked a little further into the room and to the left there was a connecting bedroom. There laid a queen sized bed with gray and black bedding, and to the right there were two doors where Thalia could only figure it would be for a bathroom and closet.

"This is your room; there are a few clothes provided in the closet until we can bring you your belongings. The bathroom is stocked with basic bathroom essentials and the living room has surround sound with satellite TV. Decorate it however you wish and make yourself comfortable."

"Agent Hill, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, and please just call me Maria."

"Am I making the right decision? Do you think?" There was a moment's pause as Maria thought about the answer to her question.

"I think that you'll come to find out that fighting for a good cause is the right decision, but fighting for what you think is right is an even better decision."

"You're starting to sound like Steve." Thalia smirked.

"I am aren't I?

"A little."

"Well if it's any consolation, I also think you'll come to find that our team is more than just Earth's mightiest heroes, we can have fun too." Maria winked and caused Thalia to laugh.

"Thanks."

"Sleep well." And with that she left the room.

Thalia immediately let out a huge shaky sigh when everything started setting in. She had to force herself to take a hot shower in hopes of washing away the immense stress that she felt. It was all too much. The intros, the arguments, the new setting. Second thoughts were swirling through her head about it all. It would be much easier to live her life out as boring Katherine Jeter. To work in the same book store and spend the little income she made on saddened nights at the bar across the street, drinking until she succumbed to her stupidity.

But no, she couldn't bring herself to do that, enticing as it sounded to her. Sure, she was by all means a shitty person, but going back on her word wasn't something she would do.

When she slipped into the extremely comfortable bed, a huge wave of tiredness had suddenly hit her. It had been a long day, but the days that follow will definitely be longer. But this was her chance at a better life.

"Don't fuck it up." She whispered to herself. Shortly after when she pushed all thoughts out and cleared her head, sleep finally took over.


	6. Chapter 6

**Here's another chapter for you guys! Enjoy!**

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It was around eight in the morning when everyone had already gathered around the mess hall of their living quarters, well everyone except Thalia. The twins were the last to join them, as getting up early was still something they were trying to get used to. They rarely had the chance to all be together considering the missions they all had to go on all the time, and when they were together, they were almost like family.

Sam and Rhodey had been there as well as they both lived not too far from the facility after having to relocate to accommodate the new Avenger's location. They both had already taken refuge in the kitchen, making breakfast as the rest of them made themselves comfortable around tables, chairs, and sofas.

"So that was quite the event last night." Sam mentioned as he started scrambling some eggs.

"Yeah," Rhodey agreed as he prepared some toast, "Thalia sure seemed nice for the most part. Didn't seem to like the two of you too much though." He regarded the twins; they had grim looks on their faces, but couldn't find the words to say anything in return.

"She'll be fine," Steve interjected, setting up the main kitchen table for breakfast, "It was all a little overwhelming for her, that's all. Hopefully some sleep cleared her head."

"Well you always seem to see the best in people, Steve." Wanda noted with a smile, joining him by making sure there was enough silverware for everyone.

"And speaking of Thalia, where is she?" Pietro asked, zooming in and out of the kitchen, a glass of orange juice in hand.

"Do you think she still might be asleep?" Vision suggested.

"Mostly likely," Nat answered while looking over a few things on a tablet, "Why don't you go and fetch her Pietro?"

He nearly choked on his drink, "Why me?" He asked, a little surprised.

"You're the fastest on the team, right? Getting her shouldn't be a problem." She gave him a malicious smirk and Pietro scoffed at her words. Like that had worked so very well the first time.

"That's actually a good idea," Steve added, "Breakfast is almost done, and I think she'll get around well if we all had a fresh start with each other." Wanda then gave her brother a 'good luck with that' look before turning her attention to Vision and starting a conversation with him. Pietro sighed to himself, this was going to be a long day for him.

"Her room is in the west wing, number two." He could hear Natasha reminding him as he walked as slow as he deemed possible down the corridor.

To his disappointment, he was already at her door within no time. He stared hard at the embellished '2' on the metal surface and took a deep breath as he knocked on the door a few times.

"Thalia? You awake?" He called through the door and waited, but after a few long seconds there was no reply. He knocked and called again and still no reply, and then the thought occurred to him that maybe she had managed to escape in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping. He cursed under his breath and opened the door and zoomed inside.

He had to take a few quick steps back as he was blanketed in darkness immediately. Running his hand along the wall nearest to the door, he flipped on a switch which filled the living room with light. Still, there had been no sign of her. He moved onto the connecting bedroom, which too had taken in some of the lighting, relieved that it wasn't in total darkness. He reached the bed in a flash and his breath nearly hitched in his throat when his eyes laid on Thalia's sleeping figure, intertwined in the blankets of the bed. Thalia hadn't escaped or left the facility in the middle of the night, but was actually sleeping soundly in her bed. She was sleeping on her side, the blankets just below her shoulders. The side of her face rested gently on the pillow, mouth opened slightly. His heart pounded loudly in his ears as he walked over to the side of the bed she was sleeping on and slowly knelt down beside her.

"Thalia." He called out gently, but still nothing happened.

"Thalia." He called again, this time a little louder and she scrunched her face up and stirred. She grumbled out a small noise as she twisted around the bed.

"You need to wake up." He stated louder now and couldn't help but smile as she growled at him again. Thalia moved around some more and then finally opened her eyes to whoever it was that tried waking her up. When her eyes fixated on Pietro's bright blue eyes, she instantly sat up and pulled the covers up against her body.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She exclaimed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was still disoriented, her bed head now in full view.

"I was sent here to wake you up." Pietro explained but it was no use, Thalia already had a look on her face that was a mix of embarrassment and anger.

"Haven't you heard of knocking? What makes you think you can just barge in here?"

"I did knock! A few times actually!" He yelled back, "When you didn't answer I thought that you might've left in the middle of the night."

"And why would I do that? I wouldn't even know how to get out of here! This place is like a damn maze!" She argued and Pietro sighed in frustration, this girl made his blood hot beneath his skin within seconds, but he decided not to egg her on to make things even worse.

"You need to get up, we're all having breakfast and Cap wants you there too." He informed as he stood back up, trying to keep some distance. She blinked a few times and scratched her bed head before looking over at the clock on the nightstand.

"It's 8:30 in the goddamn morning! I only had like…four hours of sleep!"

"You'll get used to it." He answered shortly, but instead of getting up, she plopped her body back down on the bed.

"Come on, everyone's waiting for us." He noted and gestured for her to get up.

"Well you need to leave first." She said plainly, not budging from where she was.

"I'm not leaving, I'm supposed to take you there."

"Well I can't get up until you leave!" His furrowed his brows in confusion on why he had to leave in order for her to get ready.

"Why?"

"Because I barely have any clothes on!" She blurted out, and his eyes widened in realization that she was most likely just in a shirt and underwear under those blankets.

"You don't?" He uttered, and in an instant Thalia quickly grabbed a pillow and flung it towards Pietro in frustration. The pillow was no match for him as he flashed to the side before it even touched the ground.

"You gotta be faster than that if you're going to hit me." He smirked, earning a hateful look from her that meant she was about to kill him at any moment, not caring if he saw her half naked or not.

"Okay, okay. I'll go," He quickly raised his hands, "Don't take too long, I'll be right outside." And with that he flashed out of the room, the sound of the door closing shortly after.

She wanted to scream into her pillow and go back to sleep for the rest of the day, and with Pietro barging in and teasing her only made the start of her day frustrating. She quickly flung the covers off of her and went to the bathroom to clean herself up. Maria had been right about the room being stocked with everything for basic needs. Thalia found a toothbrush and toothpaste in one of the drawers and a washcloth in a nearby cabinet. It didn't take much longer than five minutes to wash her face and brush her teeth. But she regretted sleeping with her hair wet the night before, seeing the giant bird nest on top of her head in the mirror's reflection. Re-wetting her hair to flatten down the mess, she brushed out the tangles and tied it up into a ponytail, a few dark strands hanging loosely around her face. She got dressed in the closet, finding a sporty tank top and some black Under Armour capris that barely fit around hips. Either they thought she was smaller than she actually was or she was curvier than she realized.

Pietro had been waiting right outside of the door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed when Thalia left the room. He smiled slightly at her but in return she gave him a stern look, either meaning she was still pissed from him waking her up so early or she had another reason to be pissed at him. From what he could think of, it was probably both. He chose not to say anything but instead started walking back to the mess hall with her following his tracks.

"If you barge into my room while I'm sleeping again," She called from behind him, "I'll throw you on your ass faster than you can run." He resisted a smile even though she couldn't see, wondering if she really meant that or not.

It wasn't long before they were back in the mess hall with Thalia trying to remember all the lefts and rights they made considering this is where she'll be spending a lot of her time in from now on. Everyone had been setting up breakfast and most of them had already taken a seat at the main table.

"Hey, there she is." Rhodey was the first to see her, catching the rest of the team's attention.

"Good morning, Miss Thalia," Vision greeted, "I hope you slept well." Pietro had left her side to take his seat next to his sisters, leaving Thalia the only seat that was open. Right between Natasha and Sam.

"Couldn't really call it sleeping," Thalia admitted, "It was more like a nap to me." Her eyes lingered longer than they should have at Vision. To her, he was different than everyone else. As if he wasn't entirely human with the way he spoke and the way he presented himself. (Not to mention the way he looked) But it definitely wasn't the weirdest thing she'd ever seen.

"Well we're glad that you decided to show anyway," Steve said, "How are you feeling?" She looked over at all of the faces at the table and thought long and hard about Steve's question; she still had a hard time believing all of this to be real, and plus she was extremely tired still.

"I'm still trying to take this all in, to be honest. Can I have some coffee first? Then once I'm fully awake I'll get back to you on that." She answered as a plate of eggs and toast was passed her way. Sam then proceeded to pass her a cup of freshly brewed coffee with cream and sugar. Just the very aroma of the freshly brewed coffee perked her right up.

"Is it like this every morning?" She asked with a raised eyebrow as she tried to comprehend a group of superheroes eating breakfast together every morning.

"No, not every morning." Nat started, "We're mostly on missions most of the time, this is the first time in a while where we're not completely busy with saving the world." She gave a wry smile at Thalia.

"Speaking of saving the world," Thalia mentioned, "When do we get to go after the rest of HYDRA?"

"You get right to the point, don't you?" Steve noted with a small smile.

"Well that's why I signed up for this, right?" She asked while taking a bite of her perfectly buttered toast and catching a glimpse of Pietro's eyes across the table.

"Well, you need to learn how to walk before you can run, kid." Nat noted.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're gonna need some training first." She said bluntly while taking a sip of her orange juice.

"Training? Why do I need training? HYDRA had me for _five_ years," She pointed out, "I wasn't exactly playing 'Go Fish' the entire time I was there, you know." She scoffed and took a drink of her coffee.

"We're not saying you don't know how to use your powers," Steve added, "but I'm pretty sure he also wasn't training you how to fight in a team, did he?" He waited for Thalia to give him an answer, but she couldn't, he was completely right.

"You need to learn how to work together with people on your team," He continued, "and not only that but we need to understand your fighting style too; we need to know your strengths and weaknesses, and that'll help us improve as a whole."

"Okay, _Captain."_ She mused, "You want to see what I can do at tryouts before I make the team? Fine, I'll be glad to."

"You already made the team," He noted, "But yeah, let's see what you can do."


	7. Chapter 7

**Another chapter finally up! Sorry that it took longer than usually to get an update on here, but this chapter is a lot longer than the other ones so hopefully this will make up for it? R &R and enjoy!**

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"So this is your guys' training room?" Thalia asked in shock as they walked into what seemed more like a giant indoor courtyard than a training room. The ceiling reached up to about 30 feet high and the walls were lined entirely with solid steel. There were sections in the floor that looked like they slid open, but Thalia didn't want to find out what was underneath those trapdoors.

"One of three," Nat explained as they all filed in, "This is our biggest one." Thalia let out a big sigh as she marveled at the grand view; there were a few giant cargo crates laid about, but everything else seemed so clean and immaculate.

"I guess you could say tryouts begin now." Steve stated with a smile as they all gathered together and awaited for whatever demonstration Thalia was going to perform.

"Well for starters," Thalia began, "Anyone happen to have a gun handy?" Everyone seemed quiet for a few moments at the odd question, then suddenly Nat pulled a small, black hand gun out of nowhere.

"What are you going to use it for?" Nat asked suspiciously while checking the gun to see if there was a bullet in the chamber.

"I'm not going to use it," Thalia grinned slightly, "You are." She then stood with her arms held out, bracing herself, "I want you to shoot me." Natasha then muttered out what possibly could be a laugh and looked at Thalia like she had lost it.

"And why would I do that?"

"We _are_ starting tryouts aren't we?" Thalia asked sarcastically as she glanced at Steve, "Or did you change your mind about me showing you what I can do?" Nat and Steve looked at each other like they were having a conversation inside their head. Pietro looked to his sister and gave her a 'what are they thinking' look, but she just shook her head, reminding him of her 'no mind reading to friends' policy. Thalia stood there impatiently with her hands on her hips as the Captain and Romanoff nodded in some sort of agreement.

"Just do it." Pietro said suddenly which caught Thalia's attention, "She'll be fine." He and his sister both knew that she would be considering what happened last night. Thalia eyed him curiously, wondering if he said that because he trusted her words or that he didn't care what happened to her. She couldn't decide which one was worse for her.

"Okay, I need everyone to step back a little." Steve warned and everyone followed, watching both curiously and anxiously at Nat and Thalia. Nat had a complete poker face on, like this was another one of her missions that she's done a million times before. Pietro noticed that Thalia had a wry smile on her face, showing no fear whatsoever. He could only guess that _she's_ done this a million times before. He didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

Nat then slowly raised her arm and aimed the gun towards Thalia; the silence that hung in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. She breathed in slowly while resting her finger on the trigger; eyes locked with Thalia, and then breathed out as she pulled. It all happened within a split second, there was a loud 'pop' and the bullet seemed to get only a foot away from her face before it collided with a force field and then ricocheted in another direction. The force field was barely tangible aside from the purple hue that it gave off.

"See?" Thalia shrugged her shoulders, "Wasn't so bad, was it?" The whole room was silent aside from a few sighs of relief.

"So…force fields huh?" Sam pointed out as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, "That's your thing?"

"I guess you could call it that." She shrugged again. She couldn't recall if Strucker ever had a particular word for her ability; she never cared to pay much attention to anything that mad man said to her.

"Hope you don't mind me asking," Steve interjected, "But is there anything that can penetrate that?"

"Not that I can recall," She shook her head, her mind suddenly recalling all the tests she had to go through, "Strucker's tried pretty much everything." A shiver went down her spine as she tried suppressing them.

"Is that all you were going to show us today?"

"There's one more thing actually." She pointed, scanning around the large room and eying one of the metal cargo crates. She jogged lightly over to the large container and pressed her hand against it, feeling the cold beneath her skin. The crate was about seven feet tall and six feet wide, give or take from her angle. She knocked on the metal a few times, a hollow sound echoing inside.

"Is this empty?" She called out as the rest of them started walking over, wondering what she was going to do next.

"It is." Nat answered, "All of them are empty; we use them for training purposes."

"Then you won't mind if I…?" She trailed off, gesturing her hand in a punching motion.

"Go right ahead." Steve replied with eyebrows raised. Everyone was waiting eagerly now of what she was going to do, the room falling soundless again.

Thalia examined the metal crate closely once more before straightening up and cracking her knuckles. She had a stern look on her face and was in full concentration and breathed in and out slowly. Crouching slightly, she readied her right hand in the shape of a fist. Everyone braced for it as Thalia let out a small yell before swinging her fist at full speed towards the hard surface. A loud bang resonated through the room on impact as the crate slide back a few yards, a gigantic dent within its side.

They all looked a little surprised, still starring wide eyed at the crate. Thalia was already a little out of breath, a little disappointed that all the effort she put in didn't get the results she wanted.

"Well that was interesting." Vision was the first to say anything.

"Man am I out of shape." She muttered under her breath as she shook her hand.

"Out of shape?" Sam snorted, "You just managed to move a half-ton cargo crate with your bare hands. You're kidding right?"

"It's been a while since I tried it on something that heavy and dense." Thalia explained as she gave a halfhearted smile before readjusting her posture.

"Well either way," Steve pointed, "That was impressive." Everyone nodded in agreement, not entirely sure what else they could say. To any average person on the street, Thalia didn't look all too daunting. She was the very definition of petite, standing at about 5'4 and weighing no more than 120 pounds. Without the addition of her soft curves, anyone would assume she was no older than sixteen or seventeen.

"So you have super strength too?" Rhodey asked.

"Not exactly, I can't really explain it, but-"

"I can." A voice echoed over all of them as they turned around to see Tony Stark casually walking from the entrance of the training room. He had a smug look on his face as he took off his sunglasses and tucked them into the collar of his gray shirt.

"Stark, how nice of you to join us." Steve commented with an unenthusiastic look on his face.

"Always is." He replied with his usual cocky attitude, then he turned his attention towards Thalia, "How you doing, kid? You cooled off yet?"

"Hah, hilarious." She gave out a humorless laugh as she crossed her arms against her chest.

"Sorry that I got here late, Maria said I was missin' out on all the fun at this little show and tell thing." Tony remarked as he walked up to the group. "'Was doing lots of research on little Miss Peterson here." Thalia's face twisted in disgust, feeling slightly violated of her privacy in an odd way.

"So this unnecessary 'research' that you did-"

"It was completely necessary." Stark interjected innocently, "Had to find out if we were recruiting a complete nut job. No offense."

"Too late, I'm already offended since you so rudely interrupted me." She spat as she glared at him, causing no effect on him. She could only guess that Tony's received lots of hateful stares in his lifetime. Pietro couldn't help but grin slightly as he watched Thalia still glaring daggers towards Stark; at least they were on the same page for something.

"Okay let's rewind this a little bit," Steve interjected before Thalia or Tony had the chance to say anything else to make things worse, "Stark, you mentioned something about Thalia, on how you have an explanation?"

"I have a theory."

"Then please," Thalia urged on sarcastically, obviously annoyed that they were talking about her, "By all means!" The flung her arms out dramatically and rolled her eyes which earned a small smile from Nat.

"Well first things first," Tony started matter-of-factly, "Did you or did you not have your abilities before HYDRA?"

"That's not something I'm going to discuss with you." She recoiled from Tony even though he was nowhere near her.

"Okay fine," He surrendered, holding his hands up, "Then my theory will just be an idea." He started pacing around the room, unable to keep still, and stared off into the distance like he was about to spout a poem by Shakespeare. "I believe Miss Peterson's cellular structure is quite interesting; her DNA complex causes a certain reaction to the gravitational energy in the environment on a molecular level, like little cells flowing through her veins. Except like white blood cells that automatically fight for us inside of our bodies, she's able to control those cells and _create_ that reaction whether for defensive or offensive purposes. That reaction pushes against other energy around us, hence why she's able to fend off just about anything we throw at her or why it just looks like she has super strength when in reality she probably can't even beat Natasha in an arm wrestling match."

"Hey!" Both Thalia and Nat said a once, either way it was an insult to both of them. Though Thalia was partially impressed with how Stark was able to explain things so well, she couldn't get over the fact that his cockiness nearly overwhelmed his explanation. She was starting to understand why Tony had that reputation of being _that_ guy. Sam and Rhodey tried their best to suppress a laugh, while the rest of them looked on intently.

"I'm just being honest here sweetheart," Tony admitted while shrugging his shoulders, "You look like you could use a cheeseburger or three."

"Excuse me?" She remarked as her eyes turned to steel and started walking towards Tony, "You want to find out for yourself if I can _hold my own_ , old man?" Steve held his arm out to stop Thalia shaking his head as to not let Tony get to get. Her anger started boiling under her skin and she huffed before taking a few steps back. Tony then dramatically placed a hand over his heart.

"Old man? For your information I'm not the senior citizen here." He gestured towards Steve, whose jaw clenched slightly.

"Stark." Steve warned.

"Okay okay," Tony raised his hands as if to surrender, "I was just pullin' your chain there, kid. You look like you could probably kick my ass." Thalia's angry expression turned into a satisfied one as she nodded and grinned triumphantly.

"Okay this conversation is going off course again" Nat reminded them and all eyes were on her, "Tony, how did you even come up with a theory like that?"

"Hadn't slept since I left last night." He replied simply and everyone knew that whenever Tony didn't sleep, he was either filling that big brain of his with more information or tinkering away at one of his suits. "I could give you a more accurate one if Thalia agrees to stop by the tower sometime."

"Hmmm," She tilted her head, thinking for a brief second, "How about 'Hell no'." She interrupted suddenly.

"Seriously, did anyone tell her about the language policy?" Tony asked as he scanned the faces of his teammates. There were a few laughs that went around and Thalia had a confused look on her face as she looked to Steve for an answer.

"Don't ask." Was all he said. She definitely felt like the odd one out of an inside joke.

"Anyway," Tony started as he pulled out his phone to glance at the time, "I really just came here to drop a few things off to Eye Patch and Hill. Pepper's got me on a tight leash lately, something about 'running a company' that she needs help on." He remarked as the corners of his mouth turned upward slightly in a grin, "You know where to find me." And with that he turned on his heel and walked towards the entrance.

"My offer still stands, Miss Peterson!" Tony called out right before closing the door and all Thalia could do was roll her eyes, annoyed. She couldn't believe someone who was a part of the Avengers had such a huge ego.

"Are tryouts over?" Pietro said suddenly which gained everyone's attention, "Or were you just joking about the part where you show us if you could, how do you say, _hold your own_?" His thick accent rolled off his tongue. Him and Thalia locked eyes for a moment; he had a smirk spread across his face and Thalia couldn't tell if this was him challenging her in some way or he really wanted to see what she was made of. She eyed him curiously, in a way it surprised her, the way he interjected out of the blue. It wasn't until Steve spoke that they failed to realize that she and Pietro were staring at each other for far too long.

"Can you?" Steve asked.

"Huh?" She snapped back to reality, not noticing that everyone was staring at her for an answer.

"Hold your own. Can you fight hand to hand without using your abilities I mean?" Steve corrected.

"Of course I can. Well, enough to 'hold my own' I guess." She joked, "Would you like me to demonstrate?" Steve nodded and stepped forward, implying that he was going to spar with her but Thalia suddenly held up her hand in protest.

"Nuh uh, not you Steve," She explained and pointed to Pietro, "I want to spar with Speedy Gonzales here." Steve didn't seem to have a problem with that, he looked back to see that Pietro had a wide grin on his face like he'd been waiting for this moment. They proceeded to pull out a large black training mat and sprawled it against the floor.

"Just because you're new doesn't mean I'm gonna go easy on you," Pietro mentioned as they stepped on the square mat facing each other, "I won't hold back."

"Good," Thalia mused as she started stretching her body out, "Then neither will I."

They stood in fighting stances, readying themselves as they locked eyes again, but this time Pietro could see a certain fieriness in her gaze. Since joining the Avengers, he's actually picked up a lot of things during training. He hoped that he wouldn't be too hard on her.

Boy was he wrong.

Not even within a minute into their sparring, when Pietro aimed for a light punch towards her face, she moved her head to the side, completely dodging it. And in that same instant, she quickly grabbed onto the bicep of his extended arm and turned her whole body around, pressing her back against his chest and tumbling forward, using all the momentum she could get to swing his entire body over, summersaulting onto the mat, hard. An eruption of noise went around the group that now gathered around the mat. It was one thing to see Quicksilver defeated so 'quickly', but another to see Thalia throw a man almost twice her size with ease. Wanda couldn't help but smile slightly as she watched her brother get a taste of his own medicine from being so smug all the times before. Thalia, still kneeling next to Pietro, leaned her head down to whisper in his ear.

"You didn't think I forgot about you knocking me on my ass last night, do you?" Her voice was low and husky, and Pietro couldn't decide if he was more aroused or scared. Thalia then quickly stood back up and extended a hand out to help him up, which he took cautiously. His back ached slightly and he was surprised at how hard he hit the floor; the petite girl that stood in front of him was definitely not a force to be reckoned with.

"Would you like to go again?" She asked innocently and to which he nodded slightly but almost immediately regretted nodding. Everyone stayed quiet as they watched Thalia and Pietro ready themselves for another round. This time they started off at an even pace, him throwing jabs and her blocking them effortlessly and vice versa. It was until Pietro that tried to change it up by side stepping one of her punches and throwing his arm quickly around her neck in order to throw her body forward, but to no avail, Thalia picked up his intentions faster than he bargained her for. As he was about to throw her, she quickly back dropped, twisting her body and throwing herself forward but making sure she had a good hold of his arm that was around her neck. Using momentum again, his body fell with hers and he ended up with his back on the floor and her on top. Their faces were inches apart and he could feel her hot breath on his face.

"Are you sure you weren't holding back?" She teased and for once he was speechless. The rest of the team applauded slightly at their performance.

"Nicely done," Steve noted as both Thalia and Pietro got back up, "It definitely looks like you can handle yourself, Thalia."

"Yes, now _that_ was impressive." Rhodey exclaimed.

"Yeah, remind me not to piss you off." Sam joked which got a small chuckle out of Thalia.

"Thank you, thank you." She mused as she took a bow. She then turned towards Pietro and extended her arm out, "No hard feelings?" She winked as they shook hands. Sure, Pietro had no hard feelings towards her, but he had a feeling that this would definitely not be the last time that they sparred with each other.

They all began to chat amongst themselves, going a little into detail about how training would proceed now with Thalia on the team. Steve had asked a few questions about her abilities like if she was capable of shielding someone other than herself. She had told them yes but she would need to get back into practice before actually trying it. Six months without constant tests and training day after day could really make a difference. She had to admit that she was a bit excited to see everyone in action and up close; it wasn't every day you were going to train with a group of superheroes. And then the thought had suddenly hit her, was _she_ a superhero? She instantly pushed the thought away as it sounded completely absurd. She only joined to help put an end to HYDRA, nothing more, and after that was done she would be out and she would no longer be an Avenger. But deep down she couldn't bring herself to admit that it was what she truly wanted.


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's another update for you guys! Sorry that it took so long, enjoy!**

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The team's small talking had to come to a halt when Fury had suddenly made his entrance into the training room and when the door slammed shut, everyone went quiet as their gazes fell on Fury, who seemed a little distressed.

"Sorry to interrupt on your little get-together here," Fury started as his eye fell on Thalia, "I hope you're adjusting well, Miss Peterson." She didn't know if she could even say anything on the matter. It hasn't even been a full day of her being there. It was too soon to tell with all of her mixed emotions. She hasn't killed or brutally hurt anyone yet, so she guessed it was a good start.

It was also hard not starring at Fury's other eye hidden underneath the black eye patch. So many ideas came to her head as to how he had gotten that patch. Most of them making her feel a bit uneasy.

"Something wrong, Fury?" Steve questioned as his brows furrowed.

"Actually yes," He replied, "It's sort of urgent actually. That thing you, Romanoff and I talked about last night." He didn't finish his sentence, the obvious reason was because everyone else was there also. Nat and Steve looked at each and nodded in understanding.

The secrecy that unfolded before Thalia didn't settle well with her. She didn't like secrets and the action of it quickly got under her skin.

"What's going on?" She added in abruptly.

"It's nothing you need to worry yourself with," Fury assured, "It's sort of classified."

"I'm not really a fan of all this secrecy thing, you know, considering that I was held captive by HYDRA and was basically kept in the dark about everything. A good chunk of my life was practically an entire lie." She countered, "I thought teams weren't supposed to keep secrets from each other." Fury sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying not to lose his temper. To him, this girl needed a serious attitude adjustment.

"Well if you must know, Miss Peterson," Fury informed, "The _thing_ that we were referring to was actually an informative lead we had on Dr. Banner, one of _your_ teammates. And as you probably already know, he went missing almost half a year ago. We're setting up a three-man mission to go look for him. It was actually Romanoff's idea that we discussed this in private." Thalia's face dropped as Fury finished his sentence. She immediately felt horrible as she looked back to see Nat with a grim look on her face. She was a complete idiot.

"Shit, I'm sorry Natasha." She pleaded, and again she was speechless. Apologies were always so awkward coming from her. At that moment she wanted nothing but to crawl into a ball and take refuge in her room for a year or two, since the amount of shame she felt wouldn't wear off until then. "I've got some major anger management issues. Still workin' on that."

"No worries kid, you're not the first one with 'em. Trust me." She replied coolly before looking to Fury, "What time do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, I'll explain all the details when we meet up with Maria." He stated as he nodded towards the door, "We're calling up Stark too, we never know if Veronica might be of use." And with that Steve and Nat regard the rest of the team quickly before leaving with Fury.

"Who's Veronica?" Thalia asked, slightly confused.

"Oh, just a giant suit Tony built just in case Banner gets out of control." Rhodey answered casually, "Was last used in Wakanda a few months back." She noticed that the twins had tensed up slightly by Rhodey's words, but she decided not to pry into it.

Since Thalia was pretty much done with her little 'tryout' and Steve and Nat were gone with Fury, the rest of the team had pretty much split up as well. Sam had gone back to his house to look over some files on a 'missing person' mission. Rhodey needed to catch a flight to D.C. on request of the President, which Thalia couldn't believe. And Wanda and Vision were off somewhere, enjoying each other's company in the mess hall most likely.

Now that left just Thalia and Pietro, who were on their way back to the living quarters. Pietro had mentioned something in regards to getting food as they walked side by side, which Thalia had no problem tagging along. Truth is, she really had no choice. If it was up to her to navigate her way back, she would've most likely gotten herself lost.

"So, are you hungry like all the time?" She asked when they stopped at their destination, the kitchen. Pietro had tried to fill their silent walks together with an explanation as to how his powers worked. She paid attention only enough to know about his extremely fast metabolism, which she sort of envied.

"Not always," Pietro replied as he stopped in front of the fridge and opened it, "Some days I eat a lot, some days I don't." He grabbed a small container of blue berries off from the top shelf and began popping two or three of them at a time into his mouth. Thalia too had grabbed a few of them, tasting the sweet juices in her mouth as she chewed. They happily ate their blue berries in silence next to each other until she caught Pietro smiling down at her. She darted her attention towards something else in the kitchen, feeling hot under his gaze.

"You were holding back, weren't you?" She asked, hoping to ease the tension in the air if there was even any.

"Maybe a little bit." He lied. He really wasn't holding back at all. Close hand to hand combat was never his strong suit. Sure, he could definitely swing a good punch, but when it came to anything extra such as mixed martial arts, he was dead in the water.

"Well, thanks for making me look good in front of everyone." She joked. Pietro wanted to comment on that, to tell her that she did look good, but he resisted from hear of getting punched in the face.

"What are you going to do now?" He asked, throwing the empty fruit container into a trash bin.

"A nap sound nice right about now." Thalia noted simply as she stretched, letting out a yawn.

He laughed, "A nap? It's not even noon yet."

"Which gives me plenty of time to." She winked at him, sending butterflies fluttering throughout his stomach. She started walking out of the kitchen towards the direction of her room and waved back at Pietro, "If anyone asks, I'm meditating." He couldn't think of anything to answer back as meditating would probably be the last thing that she would ever do on her free time.

The moment Thalia had entered her room, she immediately noticed the many boxes that scattered the floor and piled high into small cardboard towers. She figured that this was all of the stuff some of the Agents had gathered from her apartment, slightly impressed that they were able to get her stuff so fast. She didn't bother filtering through any of the boxes at the moment considering her only motive of coming back to the room was to reunite with her soft bed that she fell in love with so quickly. She walked over to her side of the bed and saw something that surprised her: her cell phone. It rested on the surface of the night stand with a small note lying underneath it.

 _Miss Peterson,_

 _One of our Agents were able to find your cellular device at the nearby bar; I've already taken the opportunity to input the teams' contact information into it. I hope you don't mind. Also I hope that they've brought back everything you needed. The furniture was the only thing they couldn't take with them, but they were able to donate it to a nearby donation facility. Let me know if there's anything else you need, my contact information is also listed in your phone._

 _M. Hill_

Thalia had completely forgotten her phone back at the bar last night and it didn't even occur to her until now. Yet it wasn't like Thalia had plenty of friends that were up all night worried about her. She turned on the device and sadly there was only one text message and it was from Ashley.

 **OMG Katy I'm sooo sorry about last night! I over did it again! Did you ever get that cute guy's number? Ttyl!**

A small smile started spreading throughout Thalia's face as her mind drifted to Pietro. A lot of events had transpired since last night and she couldn't help but laugh at the whole ordeal. She sat the phone back down on the table, making a mental note that she would somehow come up with an elaborate story as an excuse to tell Ashley later. She then released her wavy hair from its hair tie and plopped her body down onto the nice cold bed. Thalia gave out a happy sigh as she got comfortable in between the sheets and within a minute or two she was already drifting off to sleep.

Without anything else to do, Pietro had decided to go to the gym to train; already dressed in workout clothes, he had set up a punching bag on its holding chain and started wrapping his hands with wrist wraps. Pietro had always worked on his upper body more often than he did on his lower body, and it wasn't like his lower body needed much training. As he starts going at the bag, throwing swift jabs and punches, his mind begins to wonder; he was finding it more and more difficult to be civilized when he was in the same vicinity as his sister and Vision. It wasn't like he had anything against the android beside the fact that he's not even human. He's just always been very skeptical around Vision. How can a robot even have feelings? He knows well enough that his sister has taken a liking to the guy and he just cannot manage to understand what she likes so much. He wasn't aware of how occupied he became with his thoughts until his victim of a punching bag suddenly broke from its chain and collapsed onto the floor.

"Shit." He muttered under his breath as he bent over to pick up the bag.

"Rough day, Pete?" Someone's voice called out from the entrance of the gym. Pietro turned around to see who it was, and a small smile slowly spread on his face when he saw that it was Clint Barton leaning casually on the frame of the door.

"Clint," Pietro gently dropped the bag back on the floor and started walking towards Hawkeye, "When did you get here?"

"About ten minutes ago." He answered as they gave each other a quick hug.

"I thought you were taking a break for a while? Did Fury call you on a mission?"

"Nah," He smirked, "Stark told me last night about the new recruit, thought I'd swing by and meet her." Clint then had a slightly amused look on his face as he leaned closer towards Pietro, "Heard she was a feisty one, you getting along with her yet?" He winked and lightly nudged Pietro in the arm.

Pietro just shrugged at Clint's question; he really had no idea if what he and Thalia acted around each other could be considered 'getting along'. He had only known her for about a day and so far she was still completely unpredictable. If he had to describe Thalia with just a few words, it would definitely be beautiful yet deadly.

"How long are you here for? How's your family?" Pietro asked as he started taking off his bandages.

"Only here for the evening, Nathaniel's still keeping us on our toes so I'm not staying for too long. Laura's definitely got her hands full, but she insisted that it was okay that I came." Not only had it been a long time since Pietro and his sister had seen Clint, it's been even longer since they'd seen Clint's family and especially his new son. A small grin emerged as he remember that Nathaniel's middle name was also his.

"Now enough small talk," Clint noted as he smiled and slapped a hand on Pietro's shoulder," Where's this new recruit that everyone's been talking so much about?"

* * *

 **Sorry if this chapter seemed a little short and boring, but next chapter Thal will finally meet Clint! And again, thanks so much for all the awesome reviews, it really means a lot and definitely motivates me more to write and publish faster.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Here's another chapter for you guys! I'm sorry that it's been taking every week or so to get these out. I've been pretty busy with a lot of things and I just lose track of time, but please don't hate me!**

 **And also o** **ver 200 followers now WOOHOO! Thanks for everything guys, it really means a lot that you enjoy this story.**

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"Asleep? What do you mean she's asleep?" Clint asked as he and Pietro made their way back to the mess hall. He quickly glanced at the time on his phone and confusion filled him. "It's only four in the afternoon!"

"She had a long night last night," Pietro defended, although he had no idea why he was, "Was a long night for all of us." Clint only shook his head at the young superhero as they kept walking, so far this Thalia seemed like no recruit they've ever had before.

When they arrived at the mess hall, Vision and Wanda were still there, sitting across from each other deep in conversation. Rhodey and Sam were there also; they had returned from their day and decided to come back to the facility since Cap, Romanoff and Stark were leaving in the morning. The main TV was turned to some sports channel and they were happily relaxing and chatting on the couch.

"What is this amateur hour?" Clint called out sarcastically which got everyone's attention, "Soon as I leave you guys, Roger's got you guys lounging around like couch potatoes?" Everyone knew his words were all joke, they all smiled at the wonderful surprise and began making their way one by one to greet Hawkeye.

"Bout time you got here," Rhodey said first as he clapped a hand on Clint's shoulder, "Was beginning to wonder if you left us for good."

"Me leave?" Clint scoffed, "You won't get rid of me that easily." The rest of the team regarded him as he gave Wanda a welcoming hug.

"So where is Nat and Cap? They off getting more beers for you guys so you can watch the game some more?" Clint teased.

"No need, we've got plenty here." Sam noted towards the kitchen, "Place is like a fully stocked bar. Nat, Steve and Tony are with Fury still; word is they might've found Banner." Clint's face had suddenly gotten serious as he processed the important information. Even though he and Bruce weren't as close as him and Nat, Bruce was still his teammate. His friend.

"Fury's doing a three-man mission I'm guessing. Which is smart, considering Stark's the only one who can use Veronica. They're gonna need him in case if they _do_ find Banner when he's not Banner," Clint's words turned dark and the group can only guess he meant the Hulk instead of the Doctor, "They leave in the morning right?" They all nodded, with Pietro grinning proudly at his recruiter. Even though Clint had been out of the field for a while to take care of his family, he still had that 'I've been working with these guys since the beginning of time' kind of knowledge.

"Pietro, where's Thalia?" Wanda asked quietly and suddenly which had gotten everyone's attention.

"Miss Thalia seems to be taking a little nap," Clint mused, "And here I though only people closer to my kids' age took naps."

"Was show and tell too much for her?" Rhodey joked, "There's no time to sleep today!"

"There's no time to sleep ever!" Sam chimed in.

"I don't require any sleep." Vision happily noted and the group couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright kid," Clint started as he clapped a hand on Pietro's shoulder, "Why don't you go wake our Highness up from her lovely nap and tell her Hawkeye is dying to meet her." Pietro shuddered slightly, remembering back to the threat that Thalia gave him when he woke her up the first time.

"Why me again?" He asked quizzically to the group and they stared at him like it was obvious.

"Well, you seem to be the closest one to Miss Peterson out of all of us." Vision stated simply, "You're her first friend." Everyone nodded in agreement and Clint just nudged him slightly and gave him one of those winks he did earlier. He shook his head in disbelief, almost letting out a laugh as he assumed they were all in on some joke that he didn't know about. Last time he checked, he and Thalia were about as close as well…they weren't close at all. He could hardly call themselves acquaintances as far as he knew considering how closed off and secretive she was. Of course he wanted to be her friend, very much so, unfortunately he knew that she didn't trust him or any of them yet and he didn't expect her to. With what she went through and where she came from, it was going to take time and as impatient Pietro was, he was willing to wait. For her.

Pietro smiled slightly to himself at the out of the blue decision he just agreed on. He didn't know where the determination came from, but if there was one thing that Thalia needed right now, it was a friend. And if his teammates were already calling him her friend, that was a good enough start, right? He shared a look with his sister, who first smiled kindly at him and then gave him another one of those 'good luck' looks, as if she knew what he was thinking.

"Alright," Pietro said abruptly, "I'll go…wake her up."

"Great." Clint cheered as he clapped his hands together, "Now I'm gonna go see if Nat and Cap are done and bring 'em back here with everyone. I'm only here for tonight."

"Say no more," Sam announced happily, "I'll get some music goin' and start up some drinks. Wanda, Vision, wanna give me a hand?" He asked as he made his way to the kitchen.

"I would gladly help, although I do have to note that I have no knowledge on making alcoholic beverages." Vision noted as he and Wanda followed. Pietro sighed happily to himself as he watched everyone scurrying about; it seems like tonight will be one of 'those' nights where everyone just winds down and forget that they're superheroes for once. These were the nights he liked.

Before he dashed to Thalia's room, he figured that he might as well wash up and change out of his gym clothes. Even with super speed he still sweats like everyone else.

* * *

It didn't take him long before he was showered and dressed in a nicely fitted cotton shirt and some jeans. He glanced in the mirror of his room and ruffled his wet hair and shrugged, figuring that it was good enough before leaving. He quickly checked the time on his cell phone, it was almost 6 o' clock. Instead of dashing immediately to the front door of her room, he decided to take his time by causally strolling down the hallways. He thought that if he gave her more time to nap, she won't be as angry when he woke her up. Or at least that was the theory he came up with.

When he finally arrived in front of the metal door, he started getting nervous. The nervousness was from a mix of seeing her again and hoping that she wouldn't kill him by barging in again. Just like the first time from this morning, he knocked loudly on the metal surface of the door, hoping that the noise would suffice on waking her up. He waited and knocked again and waited and knocked again.

" _This girl sleeps like a rock."_ Pietro muttered in Russian under his breath. He really didn't like the idea of barging in, but what else was he supposed to do? He tried the handle on the door, it was unlocked. He slowly opened the door and invited himself inside.

In her room, boxes were scattered all over the place. He could only guess that this was all of her belongings from her apartment. He stood there for a moment and wondered what kind of person she really was; what kind of movies or books she liked or what music she liked listening to. He then made his way towards the bedroom and quickly spotted Thalia sleeping soundly on the bed, her body tangled in the blanket and sheets. He kept his distance from the bed and braced himself before waking her up.

"Thalia." He called out. She stirred slightly but seemed to have fallen back asleep a few seconds later. "Thalia." He called out again, louder this time and it seemed to be working as she groaned slightly.

"Thalia, its Pietro. You need to get up." He stated firmly and before he knew it, she was stretching her limbs and moving into a sitting position.

"What do you want?" She muttered angrily as she rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. Pietro on the other hand was a little bit awestruck that she didn't immediately yell at him or threatened to kill him with a pillow.

"Clint Barton is here, he came to see you." He answered softly as she yawned.

"Who?"

"Clint. You know, Hawkeye." He informed and eyed her suspiciously, thinking that her demeanor could change any minute. She looked into the distance with a confused look on her face. She tried hard to remember who Hawkeye was. Was he also a member of the Avengers? She assumed he had to be, or else he wouldn't have two names. It took a few more seconds of hard thinking, and then a switch had clicked inside her mind.

"Oh!" She shouted with a firm expression on her face, startling Pietro a bit, "The guy with the arrows right? I knew I was forgetting someone!" She shook her head, feeling a bit stupid that she had forgotten.

"Yeah," He said slowly, "Well I think everyone's waiting for us, I think we're having a little party in the mess hall."

"A party?" Her eyes lit up as she got off of her bed, "I could definitely use a drink." She ruffled her hair and looked down at herself before muttering out a sound of disgust. "Okay, I can't go like this. I need to change. Give me ten minutes." She informed before walking to one of the boxes and began sifting through it for what seemed like more clothes. Her sudden good mood seemed to be wearing off on Pietro as he smiled. Maybe it wasn't going to be as difficult as he thought to make friends with her.

"Thalia?"

"What?" She called back with annoyance in her voice.

"Didn't you say something about not coming into your room without permission again?" He mused as he looked at her. She stopped ruffling through the box and furrowed her brows, trying to recall something like that.

"Oh yeah," She said casually before her gaze turned cold again, "This is a one-time thing, then."

"It is?"

"Get the hell out of my room." She said sternly.

"Yes ma'am." Pietro replied before dashing out of the room. He tried hard to hold back a laugh while doing so. It was like she had forgot to be mean intentionally, or maybe she was more comfortable around him now. Either way, maybe Thalia wasn't as mean and heartless as she was made out to be. Within ten minutes of Pietro waiting outside of her door, she finally came out all dressed and ready to go. He looked down at her and smiled; like him, she was dressed casually, wearing dark skinny jeans that hugged her curves and a fitted t-shirt and her high top sneakers. As simple as it was, he thought she looked beautiful. Her wild hair flowed in waves down her shoulders and her steely eyes were rimmed with dark eyeliner.

"What?" Thalia asked suddenly, wondering why Pietro was staring at her.

"You look nice." He said simply. She suppressed a smile by his compliment, which was something she wasn't very used to.

"Thanks." She flashed him a small grin before setting off to the mess hall.

* * *

When they arrived, everyone was there and they seemed to be having a good time already. Music played lightly in the background and music videos played on the main TV screen. The overall atmosphere seemed very cheery and it instantly put Thalia in a good mood. Tonight she could drink and chat and have just an overall good time. She can worry about setting up her room at a later time.

"Ahh, there she is." Clint exclaimed as he got up from his seat next to Nat and made his way over to Thalia, "You must be Thalia, name's Clint Barton." He greeted as he extended his hand to shake hers, to which she took graciously. "Heard lots about you."

"All good things I hope." She joked, obviously knowing that there wasn't many good things that people could say about her.

"Of course!" He cheered, "You're the new recruit, and it's all exciting news. Especially since you were recruited by my recruits." He explained as he gestured to both Pietro and Wanda.

"I wouldn't really call it recruiting." Thalia remarked remembering the night before, "But sure, let's go with that." She locked eyes with Pietro for a brief moment and he gave her a warning look, letting her know to show Clint some respect.

"Told you she's sassy," Tony chimed in as he walked over with a smug look on his face, "But I think it adds to her character, don't you think Barton?" Clint then pretended to eye Thalia suspiciously, inspecting her up and down.

"I don't know," Clint started, "You think that attitude of hers will cut it on the team?"

"Who knows, Grandpa Rogers over there seems to be sticking a hell of a neck out for her." Tony answered as he stuck a thumb towards Steve, who sat with the rest of the team.

"She's probably all bark and no bite." Clint commented sarcastically as he grinned at Thalia. She resisted a laugh that fought its way up her lungs; to her, Clint reminded her of her father, giving off this vibe of playfulness but also sternness at the same time.

"Oh yeah, old man?" She threatened with a smirk on her face, "Why don't we go to the training room and I'll just _show_ you how deadly this dog bite is." Even Clint's smile alone brought back memories of her father, and for once in a long time the memory of her family didn't bring tears to her eyes.

"I like you kid," Clint noted, "You'll do just fine with us."

"Okay yeah yeah yeah," Tony interrupted, waving his hand to dismiss the conversation, "Tonight's not about you, Peterson. That was last night. _Tonight_ is a night for the team, and the team deserves nothing but the best of alcoholic beverages." He finished as he took a swig of his scotch and for once Thalia couldn't have agreed with the man more.

"Are you guys going to stand off to the side all night?" Nat called out to them from the main living room, "I could use another beer!"

"Amateurs." Tony stated quietly while rolling his eyes, "Have I taught them nothing about a good beverage?" And with that he walked off towards the group with Clint following while he gestured for Thalia and Pietro to follow. Just as he started following Clint, Thalia grabbed his hand with hers, nearly making his heart stop by her touch.

"Come with me to the kitchen," She stated casually, "I could really use a drink."

"Yeah, alright." He smiled slightly before letting her lead the way.

Pietro wasn't the only one to react that way; Thalia had felt it too when she grabbed his hand. Her heart had been hammering in her chest and it almost drover her insane. She couldn't understand why a single touch had sent her body into overdrive. She hoped that her straight face didn't draw any unwanted attention from him as she sorted through the bar for some Southern Comfort.

"You want me to make you a White Russian?" Thalia asked as she grabbed a bottle of Coke from the fridge.

"I'll have what you're having, I trust you."

"Well, you shouldn't." She joked as she started making two SoCos for them. Once Thalia was done, she decided to let Pietro have the first drink out of the two of them so he could try. He cautiously picked up the glass and sniffed it slightly.

"Is there Whiskey in this?" He asked.

"Sorta. It's Southern Comfort, a little bit different than whiskey." She answered yet he still stared at the dark liquid suspiciously.

"I thought you said you trusted me." Thalia noted angrily while crossing her arms.

"I'm having second thoughts." He laughed nervously.

"Oh come on," She scoffed, "If I wanted to kill you, it wouldn't be poison." Pietro then nodded in agreement as if it was obvious that she wouldn't use poison to kill someone. He slowly took a small taste of the drink and swished the flavors around his tongue; spicy, sweet, tangy, and bubbly all swirled into one delicious sip.

"This is good, Thalia." Pietro noted, surprised.

"Really?" Her face suddenly brightened by his comment.

"Yeah, really good." He took a real drink this time, "Could you teach me how to make this?" She couldn't bare telling him that the drink only contained the liqueur, Coke, lime and nothing more. But she agreed anyway.

"Sure." She smiled and for a moment Pietro thought that this was just another one of her snarky smiles that never really was a smile in the first place. But when he saw the change of warmth in her eyes and the way that her full lips framed her perfect teeth, this was something genuine. This was an actual smile that was never forced, and oh did it fit her so well. Pietro could tell that for a moment, she was happy, and happiness was her best accessory.

* * *

 **So this chapter was pretty much a filler in my opinion. The next chapter will definitely be more exciting(Or to me it will be) as it goes more into Thalia's past and focuses more on her and Pietro's relationship. I'll try to get the next chapter posted ASAP. And thanks for being patient for this story. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Finally another chapter! I am sooo sorry for the long wait on this one. I've been struggling with a lot of personal things for the past few weeks, but I told myself that I was going to get it done! This is also by far the longest chapter so far. Thank you guys so much for being patient for this one, your positive feedback has always been my motivation. Hope you guys enjoy this one!**

* * *

"I think I've have a little too much Southern Comfort." Thalia muttered while shaking her head. She and Pietro were walking down the hall towards her living quarters. The party had ended quiet well with everyone getting to see the fun side of Thalia once she had a little (or a lot of) alcohol in her system. They all had to say goodbye to Steve, Nat, and Tony before then since they were leaving at dawn. Now it was time for bed as it was almost one in the morning.

"Don't you wish you had my metabolism, hm?" Pietro added playfully, "I feel great." And in truth he did. Consuming alcohol always gave him a nice buzz, but then the feeling wears off shortly with him feeling back to normal.

"Don't make me throw you on your ass, Maximoff." She warned, pushing against his arm in hopes of throwing him off balance. But instead he didn't even budge, not one bit. Thalia cursed slightly under her breath at his muscular physic.

"Oh, so you're using last names now, Peterson?" He teasingly replied as he smiled down at her.

"I think I might." She retorted as she smiled that radiant smile again that sent butterflies whirling through his insides. When they finally reached Thalia's door, a small feeling of sadness washed over Pietro as he realized the night was coming to a close. It was by far one of the best nights he's had in a long time and now it was practically over.

"I guess this is where we part ways, good sir." Thalia tried mimicking a British accent but failed miserably as her words slurred over each other. She too was feeling a bit disappointed that the night was over and that it was now 'bed time' for all the superheroes. Pietro smiled and nodded at the goofiness that alcohol brought out in Thalia. She turned away from him before his contagious smile could have any effect on her, but before she could turn the handle on the door, Pietro spoke out again.

"Hey Thalia?"

"Hm?" She looked back at him.

"You have a beautiful smile. It suits you." He stated simply. Thalia stiffened at first from his compliment, not sure if she should kiss him or punch him in the face. Pietro could see that she resisted the urge to smile again by the slight twitch from the corners of her mouth. She bit her lip instead and the image just made it worse for him.

"Thanks." She said finally, her steely eyes penetrating his. Without another word, Thalia turned the handle to her door and entered the room, leaving Pietro alone in the hallway. He sighed happily to himself, he could've sworn that her immediate getaway was only because she started getting flustered. He turned on his heel and took his time leaving the hallway.

His sister had been waiting for him in the mess hall, to which he was surprised to see that Vision was nowhere to be found. A small grin rested on her face when she sensed the good mood radiating off of her brother.

"She's growing on you, isn't she?" Wanda asked as her brother got closer.

"I told you, no mind reading." He scolded which caused her smile to grow wider.

"I don't have to read you to see," She explained as she gently placed a hand against his cheek, "Thalia's the first one since Clint that you've shown so much interest in. Why is that?" Her grin was replaced with a smirk as she waited for an answer. He scoffed in return.

"She needs a friend, that's all." He finally answered as he reached up to squeeze his sister's hand. She shook her head in agreement, small glimpses of the memories from Thalia's mind came flooding back which caused her to wince slightly.

"What is it?" Pietro questioned.

"It's Strucker," She sighed as they exchanged looks, "He did some horrible things to her, he treated her like an animal." Her words came out in whispers but were filled with disgust and Pietro could see the pained look on her face. He didn't ask for details, the simple thought of Thalia being tortured was enough to make his stomach churn. They knew Strucker was a bad man, along with Dr. List and the rest of HYDRA, but they were young and vengeful when they came to them. They didn't care about anyone else at the time and they regret it still.

"She's hurting still," Wanda spoke again, "but give her some time and she'll come around soon enough." Pietro nodded, hoping that his sister was right. They exchanged a few more words to each other before saying good night as they both could feel the tiredness forming behind their eyes. When Pietro finally rested on his bed, he couldn't stop thinking about Thalia's steely gaze that made him smile non-stop.

* * *

The overwhelming feeling of thirst had woke Pietro in the middle of the night. He groaned slightly as he looked at the time on his phone: it was about four o' clock in the morning. He wished he had brought in a cup of water with him before bed. For a slight moment Pietro almost forced himself to go back to sleep, but his body had told him another thing. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, he finally pushed himself out of his bed and made his way towards the bedroom closet. As he was only in his briefs, he slipped on a regular t-shirt and some basketball shorts before heading for the kitchen.

The mess hall was a lot quieter without anyone occupying it during the day. It was almost silent, and the silence only made Pietro more irritated. As he was serving himself a glass of water, he couldn't help but feel like the loudest person in the world. Every movement and clanks of objects echoed throughout the kitchen. But it all became worth it when he took the first drink of cold water. He sighed happily as the glass was empty within a few seconds.

Pietro then had started to serve himself another glass when he heard a sudden noise. The sound hadn't come clearly at first, so he stopped all his movements and concentrated on the silence. When the noise had come the second time, his body froze when he finally registered what the sound was: someone was screaming.

The scream had come from the hall where Thalia's room was and within a split second he was at the front of her door. His heart pounded furiously inside his chest and a million thoughts ran through his head. Instead of barging in immediately, Pietro softly placed his ear against the cold surface and listened intently. There were no more screams that came through, but what he did hear were whimpers and what sounded like sobs.

He opened the door slowly and walked in, remembering that once again he was entering her room without her permission, but he didn't care. The small crying sounds were obviously coming from the direction of her room and he quickly found her, unharmed, laying in the middle of her bed. A small feeling of relief washed over him to see that there was no perpetrator. Yet his stomach twisted in knots to see that she was having a nightmare. As he reached closer to the bed, he could see tears streaming down her pained face and her breathing becoming ragged. She clutched the blanket against her body so hard that her knuckles turned white. Pietro cursed under his breath as he knelt beside the bed, not entirely sure what to do.

"Thalia." Pietro called out softly. His voice hadn't made much affect as there was no change to her demeanor. He moved closer to her and called out again and again, yet each time his words were drowned out by her cries. He then moved his hand and rested gently on her arm that held on to the blanket so tightly.

"Thalia," He called again as he shook her gently, "This is just a dream." His actions seemed to have calmed the situation down a little as the tears stopped flowing.

"Zvezda moya," He reassured, "It's me Pietro." He shook her gently once more and suddenly all noise came to a halt as Thalia sprang from the bed into a sitting position. A panicked looked washed over her face, her chest heaving and eyes darting in all directions.

"It's alright," Pietro reassured as he moved to sit in front of her on the bed, "It was just a dream."

"Where am I?" She croaked, still completely disoriented. He then slowly moved one of his hands to cup her tear-stained face so that her eyes would meet his.

"You're here with me Thalia, it was all just a dream."

"Just a dream." She repeated quietly. She pulled her face from his touch and stared down at her lap. They sat in complete silence for a few moments as Thalia tried so hard to push the nightmare out of her head. She tried instead to focus on the fact that Pietro was in her room.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him, still not meeting his concerned gaze.

"I heard you from the kitchen," Pietro admitted, "I thought someone was trying to hurt you." She scoffed and shook her head.

"Well you can see no one's trying to kill, I'm fine." She muttered while wiping the tears off of her cheeks.

"You're definitely not fine," Pietro argued, using his hand to lift her chin so that their eyes met again, "What did you dream about?" For a brief moment, Thalia's eyes filled with fear but once again she pulled away.

"It was just a nightmare, like you said." She looked at him briefly, "I'm okay, really." He didn't believe her, he knew that she was far from okay just by how shaken up she was. Her hands still gripped tightly to her blanket and her body was shaking slightly. He tried reaching for her hand but they withdrew quickly.

"Please Pietro," She whispered as she looked away from him, "Just go." She didn't want to be alone, that was the last thing she wanted. And seeing the look on Pietro's face just made her feel worse. But she couldn't bear having to explain it all, it was too sad and embarrassing. She wasn't even angry about him being in her room anymore, she didn't have the energy to be. Thalia then laid back down on the bed and pulled the covers over her head, hoping that he would get the hint to leave her alone. After a few minutes of silence had passed, she finally heard him sigh while getting off of the bed and leaving the room completely. It was then when the tears started flowing again from the haunting memory of her dream.

* * *

Pietro had trouble falling asleep after everything that had happened, and to his demise, Thalia hadn't come out of her room for the entire day. It was only him, Wanda, and Vision at the facility so there wasn't much activity going around. There were no missions and no training sessions and neither of them were needed by Agent Hill or Fury. Throughout the day Pietro had even stopped by Thalia's room to see if she would come out, but each time he got only silence. Wanda had even noticed and asked about it and when he explained what had happened she became worried for her as well.

The twins figured it wasn't a bad idea to spar with each other for a little while. That way they can practice with each other and pass the time. Vision had gone up to the main floor; he had wanted to find Dr. Selvig and speak with him in regards to something about Thor. Now it was just the two of them, like old times. They sparred in one of the smaller training rooms, both knowing not to go easy on each other.

"What do you think she might've dreamt about?" Pietro asked his sister as he quickly dodged the many objects that were thrown at him.

"I'm not sure," She replied, red waves of energy flowing around her, "as I've said before Pietro, her past wasn't exactly the happiest." They continued sparring and talking about Thalia but after a while they realized that the conversation only made it harder to focus on practicing. Eventually they just stopped and ended up sitting in the training room, talking and just spending time with one another.

When it came around dinner time, Pietro wasn't entirely surprised to see that Thalia was still nowhere to be found. Vision had been back from the main floor and Wanda had offered to make the three of them dinner. She had made some simple pasta and sauce and when dinner was ready, Pietro noticed that she had made a fourth plate and sealed it to store in the fridge with a note attached to it. He didn't even need to ask who the plate was for, instead he gave his sister a warm hug when she came to set the table.

"Should I be giving Wanda a hug for dinner as well?" Vision asked curiously, which made the twins laugh. Dinner had ended surprisingly well and after a few hours of lounging around in the mess hall, it was once again time for bed. As they all said goodnight, Wanda had reassured her brother that tomorrow will be a new day and Thalia should come around. He tried going to bed with that thought, hoping that tomorrow he'll see Thalia and be able to talk to her more about what happened.

* * *

It was around two in the morning when Pietro had woken up again due to the fact that his body was asking for water. He cursed out loud as he laid in bed, feeling stupid as he forgot to bring water with him to bed. Once again he fought with the option of either going back to sleep or getting up to go fetch some water. The body wants what it wants and water always wins. He went through the same routine of getting out of bed and getting dressed and heading for the mess hall.

He walked to the kitchen half asleep and not noticing at first that he wasn't the only one there. Just when he grabbed a glass for the water, he nearly had a heart attack to see Thalia sitting at the bar in front of him.

"Thalia?" He asked, a little bewildered to see her. Her body leaned towards the counter and her face was slightly turned down. He noticed that she held a large bottle in her hands that he could only guess it came from the bar.

"Hey Petey." She replied comically, still not looking at him. Pietro came around the kitchen in an instant so that he was now right next to her.

"What are you doing h-"He stopped mid-sentence when he smelled the alcohol off of her, "Are you drunk?" She laughed suddenly and nodded her head.

"Right-o-mundo." She mused while shaking the almost empty bottle of whiskey.

"Did you drink the whole bottle?" He asked with a concerned tone.

"Of course not," She laughed again as she held the bottle up to her face, "There's still like…five percent left." It was then when Pietro got a good look of her face and it was then when he saw that she had been crying. In all honesty, it looked like she had been crying _all_ day. Her eyes were red and puffy and her face looked a bit pale.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked softly, finally taking a seat next to her, "How long have you been out here?"

"Few hours," She stated plainly, "Had to wait until you guys went to bed so I can have the bar to myself." It didn't seem like a liable reason to hide in her room all day; none of them had even touched the bar. He nodded slightly, thinking that she probably just wanted to have a drink without having to deal with them being in the mess hall. They sat in silence for a while and Pietro didn't dare ask about her dream; she was drunk and who knows how she'll react by the question. Plus, he was just glad that he was with her, even if they weren't talking.

"You know, you're lucky to have your sister." Thalia said suddenly. He looked at her curiously, wondering what might have brought that up.

"I am, Wanda is a very great sister. Even though I'm older, she's the one that makes sure _I_ don't get out of control." He joked. Thalia laughed slightly at his comment, but tears fell from her eyes.

"Thalia, what's wrong? Did I say something wrong?" He questioned as he leaned closer to her. She shook her head as she wiped her tears.

"I just…miss my family." She muttered and Pietro stiffened by her words. Was that what she dreamt about last night?

"The dream that I had," She began, as if answering his silent question, "It was about how they died." Her voice broke off a bit at the end of her words and tears stung at the corner of her eyes. Pietro couldn't find the words to say anything after hearing what she said. She must have been drunk out of her mind at the moment and alcohol is bringing all the emotions out of her.

"Thalia, I-"

"Sometimes I don't even want to believe that it was real," She started, cutting him off. She shook her head slightly and huffed out a humorless laugh; she had no idea why she was telling him this, but the words kept coming.

"I'm sure you all think that when I was captured by HYRDA, they killed my family during the process, and sometimes I wished that was the case, but it wasn't." Pietro furrowed his brows, wondering why on earth she would say such a thing. "When Dr. List found me, not only did they take me, but they took my family as well. They realized that my power was too great to control by mere force of guns or weaponry, they had to use some sort of…. _persuasion_." Pietro's heart nearly stopped when he finally figured out what she meant by persuasion.

"My brother Cassadin, my sister Rosalie, my parents, they took them all. Strucker promised me that as long as I complied, he wouldn't hurt them, and so I did. For five years I did anything and everything he wanted me to do: I endured endless tests and experiments just so that my family stayed unharmed, but for them to be prisoners of HYRDA was just as bad I guess." Pietro could feel anger boil beneath his skin for Strucker and his men, but he stayed quiet and listened to her. "This went on for five years, Pietro, _five fucking years_ ," A soft cry escaped her mouth, "Until one day,

 _Thalia had been sitting in her cell chamber, monitored by a few guards like normal. Everything that day had been a usual miserable day for her but for HYDRA it wasn't; word had gone around that Strucker's main base had been captured by the Avengers and that he had escaped to let the rest of HYRDA know. But things seemed to have calm down since the incident as the superheroes hadn't taken much interest in finding other bases. They had taken back the Scepter and it seemed that it was all they were looking for. HYDRA was safe, for now. She had also heard the twins were still nowhere to be found, but it wasn't like she cared for them at all._

 _It was then that one of the main overseers of the base received a horrifying message from an unknown source: Strucker was dead, it was official and their base was next. The entire base almost went ballistic after that; everyone panicked, thinking it was the Avengers finally coming back for more. Alarms sounded throughout the facility and everyone scrambled._

 _"What's going on?" Thalia called through the glass to one of the guards, who seemed to be just as shaken up. Both of the guards looked at each other with 'what should we do?' looks as all the other men ran around like chickens with their heads cut off._

 _"Hey!" She pounded against the glass, "Was ist passiert!?" She yelled in German, but still the guards paid no attention to her. After a few moments they ran too, if Strucker was dead, there's no point on guarding his test subject. The entire room was cleared, leaving her the only one left. She pounded against the glass a few times before she resulted in using her powers. The glass finally broke after a few good swings and the first thing that came to her mind was her family. She bounded down the hallway as lights flashed and alarms blared, it seemed like the entire east wing was almost empty. Her heart pounded in her chest as she ran, hoping that her family wasn't taken by any of the guards._

 _When she finally reached the hall where her family's cell was supposed to be, she suddenly had a weird feeling that shot throughout her body. No. She prayed and hoped that the feeling was just a feeling as she ran as fast as she could to the end._

 _"Mom! Dad! I'm here!" She called out, but to her fear no one replied. She stopped dead in front of the entrance and it was like the entire world came to a halt. Her family, her everything, laid dead in their cell._

 _"No!" She screamed as she ran and crouched beside their limp bodies. Her family must have resisted somehow and they just didn't care if they were alive or not. Tears streamed down her face as sobs escaped her mouth. "Please…" She cried as she gently picked up her baby and cradled his head in her lap, "Casey…" Her heart shattered at that very moment as she sat there, surrounded by the only people that she ever loved. Anger surged from within her body like a flame and she screamed aloud, feeling energy shooting out of her body. It was then when everything blacked out._

"When I woke up, everything had been desolated, the whole base, besides my family." She added as she finished telling Pietro the entire story. He was completely speechless at this point, not knowing how much pain she had gone through until now. "I can only guess the explosion was my doing, I was just so angry. They didn't come find me because they thought I was dead…and believe me I wanted to be." She admitted, "It's not every day you have to give your entire family a proper burial. And one thing that I realized, even now, is that the pain never goes away…you either get used to it or make room for it." Her words have never been so true to him, as he recalls still grieving for his parents from time to time. Yet he couldn't imagine the amount of pain she felt for her entire family.

"You know, I'm sorry if I'm always such a bitch, I don't mean to be." She said as she got off her chair from the bar, "I trust you." He had gotten off his chair as well, so that they were standing about a few inches from each other now. She looked up at him with her grey eyes and Pietro see that her tough exterior was only that and that there was a real person inside there. A person that felt remorse and cared for her family and smiled when she felt happy. He smiled and pulled her into a warm embrace, holding her tightly.

"I'm really sorry for everything Thalia," He whispered in her ear, "About your family, about HYDRA, about everything." Her body stiffened at first and for a moment he thought it might've been a bad idea to hug her, but after a few moments she returned the hug.

"I just feel so alone." She muttered into his chest and began crying again, he rubbed her back to comfort her.

"You're not alone," He stated, "You have all of us now, the Avengers. We're you're family, even though we're one hell of a weird one." She laughed slightly and nodded her head. They stood there hugging each other and Pietro enjoyed every moment of it. It was until he felt her body swaying forward when he realized that she had fallen asleep, while standing.

"That whiskey finally kicked in on you huh?" He said as he laughed to himself. He gently picked her up bridal style and headed for her bedroom. She started snoring a little bit which caused him to smile. When he placed her on her bed and tucked her in, he placed a soft kiss on her head, "Nochi, zvezda moya." He whispered before leaving and retreating to his own room.

* * *

 **Hope that you guys liked this chapter even though Thalia's memory was extremely sad. But at least her and Pietro are finally breaking down some walls. :)**

 **Nochi= Night**

 **zvezda moya = my star**

 _ **Was ist passiert = what is happening**_


	11. Chapter 11

**Voila! Another chapter! I'm really sorry that this one took really long to write also. This was kind of a filler chapter for me so it was hard to write. I do, in a way, think that this chapter is needing though. (But I'm practically done with the upcoming chapter so it won't be long before another post!) I really do appreciate your guys' patience and love your reviews!**

 **LaughterLover98- Thank you so much for the wonderful review! I actually really enjoyed (not to sound cruel) writing the part about her family. I felt it while writing too.**

 **Anastacia Lynn- Thor wont be coming into the story anytime soon unfortunately :( but not to worry because he WILL be meeting Thalia and I definitely have the 'picking up the hammer' thing in mind and I think it'll be hilarious!**

* * *

Thalia had woken up with a splitting headache along with a slight nauseous feeling in her stomach. She groaned in annoyance as she moved around on her bed, head pounding furiously. It had been a while since she had an actual hangover, given the fact that drinking became one of her guilty pleasures since escaping HYDRA. She knew well enough that drinking wasn't the hobby that she should've gotten into, but six months ago she wasn't entirely concerned about her well-being. And now she was sure she had over done it on the alcohol.

"Oh man, I feel like shit." She uttered, grabbing a hold of her head. Another groan escaped her mouth when she pushed herself into a sitting position. The room was still dark, but it was expected when you lived in a room that had no windows and was located underground. Reaching over and turning on the light on the nightstand, Thalia noticed right away a packet of Alka-Seltzer placed next to a glass of water. Underneath the medicine package was a sticky note that read 'For your hangover, P.' Feelings of both confusion and delight swirled inside of her. She wondered if Pietro had been with her the night before. Then a wave of fear washed over as the possibility of her and Pietro sleeping together flooded her mind. She banished the thought away almost as quickly as it came and mentally scolding herself for even pondering over it.

She cleared her mind of all thoughts, opening the packet and dropping the tablets into the water. She checked her phone as she chugged the bitter medicine; it was almost 11am and there had been yet another text message from her friend Ashley: **Hello Katy? You haven't been at work. They said you quit? Call me asap!**

Cursing under her breath, she sent back a quick reply: ' **Hey, got a new job and moved to New York. I'll explain later when I can. TTyl.'** She still had to think of an excuse, even if Ashley was an idiot at times, she was still a good friend to her when they first met at work. Thalia wondered if she was even allowed to tell Ashley the truth. She is technically a superhero now so there would be no reason to hide it if she was going to be saving the world in public anyway.

Feeling better almost immediately, Thalia pushed herself out of bed to head straight for the bathroom. The hot water had also helped alleviate the nausea and washed away the gross hangover feeling that lingered on her skin. Once she was done, she dressed herself in a tank top and black capris again from the closet. She didn't bother sifting through boxes of her clothes for an outfit, she was too impatient at the moment. That was yet another thing that she still hadn't done was to unpack all of her things. She huffed in frustration from the now growing list of things she had to do. While toweling her hair dry, she came to the realization that she had been MIA for over a day. On the other hand she had good reason to be. The nausea suddenly grew more unsettling as thoughts of her family from the dream surfaced.

This wasn't the first time that it had happened, the dreams. For the past six months, Thalia would have nights like before every once in a while. The term PTSD had surfaced here and there as the nightmares weren't just a figment of her imagination, they were memories. But that was a whole can of worms that she didn't bother on dealing with anytime toon.

She hesitated for a moment on leaving her room. Her teammates hadn't seen her in a while, long enough to cause questioning. She wasn't ready to give an explanation on how she needed an entire day to mull over depressing memories. She froze suddenly as her thoughts trailed to Pietro again; he had come into her room the other night to wake her from her dream. Not only had she been up right rude to him but she completely shut him out. She figured that he probably hated her now, but then her mind went back to the non-hateful sticky note. Screws turned inside her head as nothing added up. There was something that she was missing, however when she tried to recall what happened last night when she started drinking, nothing came. She grunted in more frustration as she tied her hair up in a ponytail. Thalia accepted the fact that either way it was not going to be easy to go out there and act like nothing ever happened. But she sure as hell was going to try.

When she arrived at the mess hall, the first thing she noticed was the rest of the team sitting around the main table. Pietro, Wanda and Vision were having what Thalia could only guess was lunch. They were chatting happily amongst themselves and the sight itself made the corners of her mouth twitch upward. Pietro was the first one to notice Thalia when she came into view from down the hall. When the other two noticed as well, their conversation stopped abruptly. She had the usual smug look on her face that they all knew too well already.

"Hey guys." She greeted casually as she reached the table. Wanda and Vision still had surprised looks on their faces yet Pietro had a huge grin while he casually ate his lunch. His smile made Thalia tick. It was as if he knew something she didn't. Her mind had gone back to last night; he definitely knew something. She made a mental note to pester him about it later.

"Good afternoon Miss Thalia," Vision was the first to break the silence, "What a wonderful surprise to see you today."

"Yeah, I uhh...hadn't been feeling well all day yesterday." She fibbed slightly, turning on her heel and heading towards the kitchen.

"Are you hungry Thalia?" Wanda called out while watching as Thalia skimmed over the food that was in the fridge, "I could make you something."

"I'm okay Wanda," She replied from the kitchen, "I think I'll just have some toast. But thanks anyway." The nausea still hadn't settled completely in her stomach so toast seemed like the most suitable option. She was sort of surprised that no questions of yesterday came her way. After serving herself up some slices of buttered toast, she casually joined her teammates at the table while they finished up their lunch. They mostly had small talk as they ate, with the exception of Vision suggesting to Thalia that she'd see one of the many doctors that worked at the facility. She didn't have the heart to tell him that her sickness wasn't anything serious.

Just when they were finishing up, they all heard the sudden clicking of heels that came from the entrance. Everyone knew immediately that it was none other than Maria Hill, hopefully bearing assignments for them to do. She came into view only a few seconds later, dressed in her usual dark navy blue uniform, hair tied back in a tight bun, tablet in hand. Thalia wondered how agent Hill had always managed to not only act professional all the time, but to look like it too. The idea itself seemed exhausting to her.

"Afternoon everyone." She greeted politely as she reached the table, "I have some assignments for you today, none of which are off-site unfortunately." She informed firstly, seeing the hopeful looks on the teams' faces. She brought up her tablet and gave it a few taps, flipping through a few screens. "Vision, Dr. Selvig is needing to see you sometime today. He wants to go over a few things he discussed with you prior." Vision nodded to confirm, then Maria turned her attention to Pietro, "We're going to need you to run perimeter checks today around the facility. Wilson is on another assignment so you'll be filling in."

"Easy." Pietro muttered, a smug look plastered on his face. Maria had taken that as a confirmation and moved on to his sister.

"Wanda, you have interrogation training up on the first floor. I'm afraid you'll have to do without Agent Romanoff, but I'm certain you'll be fine. And Thalia?" Thalia's head perked up suddenly by the mention of her name. She wasn't quite expecting to receive any assignments herself.

"Hmm?"

"If you don't mind following me back to the developments department, we'll need to do a fitting for you." Right then it was difficult to read Thalia's blank expression as Maria stood patiently and waited for a response.

"A fitting?" She said finally, "For what?"

"Your suit." Agent Hill answered simply, "We'll need to take some measurements and go over a few things." The twins then shared a look with each other; they remembered when they had to go through the same thing when they first joined and small smiles grew across their faces.

"Oh yeah," Thalia finally spoke, breaking out of her thoughts, "I was wondering when we were gonna get to that."

* * *

Once they arrived, Thalia couldn't get over the familiar feeling of being back at HYDRA when she saw the many people hustling and bustling around giant computers and machines that were all too highly advanced. If all the agents had been replaced with German thugs and all the equipment present had been marked with black market trademarks, it would've been as if she never had left in the first place. She shook the thought away quickly and continued to follow Maria, collecting curious looks along the way into an adjoining room. The room itself was a lot smaller and contained only a few computers and one giant machine that looked very much like a cylinder fish tank. The device was easily eight feet tall, with giant metal platforms on both ends with tubes connecting the two. There were only a few workers monitoring it and they all had noticed Maria almost right away. She then waved her hand, motioning them to get things started. And they did.

"This is our full body scanner." Maria informed, looking at the confused look on Thalia's face. "It was designed by Helen Cho, one of the world's most well-known geneticists. This machine can give you a full body scan and transfer all the details we need to Tony back at the Tower for him to go over-"

"Wait what?" Thalia interrupted, "What does Tony have to do with this? I thought we were just doing a fitting? Can't we just use that measuring tape thingy?" Thalia asked, motioning her hands together and apart like she had actual tape between her fingers. Maria could tell right away that Thalia hadn't been very fond of Stark, yet not a lot of people are. She was just another one on the long growing list of people who would rather spend hours in a room with a bear than the narcissistic billionaire.

"We're only able to evaluate the way your body works; look into detail down to every bone and muscle as you stretch your body. Your suit won't fit you as well by us just hiring a tailor. But that's only the first part of it. At the Tower, Tony will be able to have JARVIS scan you while you're using your abilities. Then he'll be able to put two and two together with the information we provide him to start development here. It's a messy process I know, but JARVIS can see things even our highly advanced technology can't." Maria explained. She could see that Thalia was trying to process all of it in her head.

"Does this mean I have to go to Tony's at some point? And what's a JARVIS?" Thalia asked, slightly irritated by the thought of Tony. Agent Hill then smiled slightly, a little amused by Thalia's question.

"JARVIS is Tony's home computing system created to manage the local environment in which Tony resides, in this case, the Tower he lives in. And yes, you will have go there sometime soon. Most likely when Stark gets back from their mission."

"Oh, how is the mission going by the way?" Thalia asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Fury's keeping watch over them, unfortunately they haven't found Banner yet. We're hoping that this time we're not chasing yet another cold lead." Thalia could sense a slight discontent in Maria's voice. Thalia too hoped that Steve and them are able to find Dr. Banner; a part of her had wanted to meet him for some odd reason.

"Agent Hill, we're ready for you." A female worker had called over from the center console of the room. Maria nodded as the workers slowly emptied the room and then turned her attention back towards Thalia.

"Are you ready?"

"Do I really have a choice?" Thalia asked with a half-smile as Maria made her way to the operating console that flickered lights all over the main screen.

"Of course you do," She said, tapping and swiping her fingers against the screen, "But you already made your decision when you joined the Avengers." All Thalia could do then was nod in agreement. Maria wasn't wrong there.

"Okay, before we get started here, I'm going to need you to strip down to your underwear." Agent Hill informed simply, not looking up from the display.

"What?!" Her words almost came out in a yell. The request seemed so ridiculous, yet Maria had a completely straight face when their eyes met.

"We'll need you to be as bare as possible. I know it sounds a little odd, trust me. But it helps the machine get a more accurate reading. All the new recruits had to go through the same thing." She stated, hoping to reassure Thalia a bit more. Thalia's mind then went to Pietro; he was also a new recruit before her. Her mind flickered unwillingly to an image to what he'd look like without any clothes on.

"Am I taking your smile as a yes that you'll be able to comply?" Maria's words interrupted her thoughts and she was glad that they did. She scolded herself mentally for even thinking of Pietro. He was attractive, most definitely. But nothing more than a friend or a teammate. That was what she tried to hard to convince herself to believe.

"Oh uhh," Thalia cleared her throat, "Yeah, let's get this over with."

Thalia was a little glad that it was just Maria in the room, but then again she figured the reason why the other workers left was just that. She slipped off her shoes and socks and discarded her top and bottoms on a nearby chair and stood there awkwardly in her underwear.

"Go ahead and step forward towards the scanner and once the glass slides open, step inside slowly." Maria instructed as she continued tapping controls on the console. Thalia did as she asked and walked towards the large tank. She half hoped that it was somewhat going to be warmer inside as the room was quite cold. The light draft in the room had sent shivers across her skin. A few seconds later, a section of the glass slid open, surprising Thalia as it didn't seem like the glass could move at all. She stepped inside slowly and to her disappointment, it seemed colder than it was outside.

"This won't take long," Thalia heard Maria's voice through the intercom, "I'm going to have you hold a few different poses while the scanner does its thing. I'll need you to stay perfectly still okay?" Thalia understood the instructions very clear; she nodded to show Maria that she was ready.

The first stance was rather easy; Maria had Thalia stand shoulder width apart and had her hold her hands above her head. While she held the pose, a blue light suddenly flickered from the bottom of the tank and slowly making it's way to the top. It was completely bizarre but she felt nothing as the light scanned over her bare skin. The image of her in just bones and muscles flashed through her head as she wondered what Maria was seeing on the other end. They went through a little over a dozen odd poses before Agent Hill gave the 'okay' signal that they were done. Once Thalia got out of the giant fish tank, she quickly got dressed in her clothes the moment she had the opportunity to.

"You did well." Maria noted as she went over last needed details before shutting the systems on stand-by mode. "Just need to go over a few quick questions before you're free to go."

"Sure." Thalia answered quickly before sitting down on a nearby chair, Maria follow in suit. She crossed her legs and propped her tablet against them before looking at Thalia.

"So, first things first, are you allergic to any physical materials?" Thalia shook her head and Maria went on to the next question.

"Have any ideas on what you'd want the suit to look like?"

"You mean I can choose?"

"We'll try our best to fit your requests."

"Oh...well the only request I have is as long as it's comfortable and that I look at least moderately attractive in it." Thalia stated simply to which Maria smiled slightly from amusement.

"I'll be sure to include those in the details," Maria informed, "Any specific colors you have in mind?" Thalia then shrugged her shoulders at the question.

"I like black and purple? I don't really mind as long as it's dark." Maria nodded before typing all of the details into her tablet before standing up from her chair.

"Well that should do it," Maria started, motioning for Thalia to follow her out of the room, "Once we get all the details we need from Tony we'll be able to start on your suit. I'll be able to keep you updated on everything."

"Don't bother," Thalia said as they walked side by side back towards the main elevator, "I'd rather have it be a surprise."

"If you say so." She laughed, stopping right at the entrance of the elevator, "I'm staying on this level. I've got a few other things to do. Just state living quarters once you're inside to go to the right floor."

"Thanks." Thalia quickly waved goodbye before turning to and entering the lift.

"And trust me, Tony's not so bad once you get to know him." Maria added before the doors slowly closed. Thalia shook her head at Agent Hill's statement.

"Hah," She huffed, "Yeah right."

* * *

Once she was back at the mess hall, she immediately noticed that no one was there. The rest of her teammates were nowhere to be found and the place felt a little empty. The thought of going back to her room seemed dreadful, so going to the gym seemed like a plausible option. She hadn't had the chance the explore the floor above them since she'd been here, but Maria had mentioned that there was a state-of-the-art-gym, swimming pool, and sauna that all the employees had full access to. She quickly ran to her room to grab her phone and some earbuds before grabbing a water bottle from the kitchen from her way out.

As if things weren't weird enough for Thalia in the day, just when she was arriving at the second floor, Pietro was just leaving. They hadn't noticed each other at first; they were both too busy looking down at their phones before accidentally bumping into each other.

"Oh sorry-"Thalia started apologizing before she realized who she had bumped into. The moment they locked eyes, Pietro had a huge smile on his face.

"Oh, hey." Pietro greeted. He was holding a gym bag in one hand and his phone in the other. Thalia scanned him over quickly to see that he was wearing a muscle shirt and some plain basketball shorts. A layer of sweat covered his bare skin and Thalia caught herself before she started starring.

"Hey there, Pete." She replied, her usual smirk returning to her face.

"How did it go with the scanner?" He asked with an amused look on his face.

"Oh yeah, that. It was pretty damn awkward to say the least." Thalia said which brought a laugh out of Pietro. "How did perimeter checks go?"

"Good. It went by fast." Thalia rolled her eyes at the obvious pun. He knew that it wasn't something she would even crack smile at, but a roll of the eye was just as entertaining.

"Well I'd better go," Pietro said, holding up his phone to show Thalia, "Fury wants to see me and Wanda, hopefully another mission."

"Hopefully it's not another recruiting mission. We all know how well you did on that." Thalia noted sarcastically, crossing her arms.

"I'd like to think we did very well on that mission." He countered. "You're not exactly back in Norwood, are you?" Her jaw had dropped s lightly by his question and Pietro could see a smile had started creeping right underneath the surface of her infamous half-smile.

"Why are you still here?" She pushed playfully against his chest, "Go before you get in trouble." She ordered before turning on her heel and walking further into the gym, not daring to look back at him.

"At least it'll be worth it." She could hear him call back to her, causing her to smile.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Sorry if this chapter seemed a little long and boring. (In my opinion it did which is why it took so long to complete it) I promise the next chapter will be more interesting! (AND WHOS EXCITED FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA CIVIL WAR TEASER TOMORROW?)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Here's another chapter for you guys! Sorry it took so ridiculously long. This one is a very long filler chapter (in my opinion) but I think this was needed. I promise the story will start to pick up in the next one, enjoy!**

* * *

The next few days had been a complete blur for Thalia. Pietro's predictions were right: he and his sister had been assigned a mission by Fury and in no time they were gone. The living quarters had once again become awfully quiet and boring. Sure, Vision was still there, popping in and out of his own room every once in a while, but it wasn't like she and the android had much in common. Thalia liked Vision of course, she truly thought he was quite interesting, but they never seemed to hit it off in conversation like him and Wanda did.

During the free time she had, she had taken up on going to the gym quite often. After the first time on going, she realized it was sort of therapeutic. She also figured that when she was finally out on the field doing missions (hopefully sometime soon), she'd need to be back in pretty good shape to keep up with everyone else. In her years being harbored by HYDRA, she remembered herself being more frail and malnourished due to the lack of food and the constant tests she endured. But those five years had made her tougher than nails; she could take a good hit or two from a grown man and not even falter. In addition to spending time at the gym, she'd also spent some of her free time finally unpacking all of her belongings. She even went as far as taking a few minutes of that time to call Ashley to explain where she had been all this time. She managed to avoid all details of her new life but during the midst of their chat, Ashley had tried bringing Pietro into the conversation. Thalia dismissed it quickly though, telling her that the guy from the bar never gave her his number, and they left it at that. She was finding herself suddenly thinking of him more and more and it agitated her. She hated admitting that a part of her actually missed Pietro, with his constant bugging and the playful smile he would always wear. She eventually came to the conclusion that it was her hormones spiraling out of control. It had been years since she had been on a real date and living under the same roof with attractive people certainly didn't make it any better.

But now things seemed almost back to normal. Steve and the rest of his team had finally returned after almost a week of being gone. Unfortunately there were no addition of persons that came back with them. Word got around that Dr. Banner was yet to be found once again, that this as the third time they tried to find him. With each passing time it seemed like he really didn't want to be found. The whole situation still hadn't been clear to Thalia. All she knew from her short time at the facility was that the Hulk was someone named Dr. Banner and that he and Natasha had some sort of romantic affiliation with each other and ever since the attack on Sokovia, he hadn't been seen since. Thalia had never taken much interest in the news, but from what she paid attention to, she knew just as much about the Avengers and Sokovia as everyone else. She didn't bother asking questions to fill in the blanks, it wasn't really her place to ask even if she was a part of the team now. The only reason why she even joined was because of HYDRA and she already knew what she needed to on them.

Steve, Tony and Natasha had wound up lounging around the mess hall after they had the chance to change into more comfortable clothes and had a debriefing with Fury and Hill. They all seemed pretty normal, casually talking about anything but the mission, but Thalia could see that a part of them looked exhausted and defeated. Natasha especially. She wasn't sure what to do in this kind of situation; alleviating tension in the air never was her thing since she was the one who usually caused it. They all sat around the couches with the TV turned on, but it didn't seem like anyone paid attention to what was screening.

"So Maria tells me they've already started on your suit kid," Tony said, finally breaking the silence as he made his way to the kitchen, "Well, the initial process anyway." He opened the constantly stocked fridge and grabbed a few beers. "I'm sure she's already told you about how it works, but you'll love it at the Tower. Got all sorts of cool toys." Thalia tried with all her might to resist rolling her eyes or shoot back a rude comment that came to her mind. She was almost certain that Maria had been joking about a good side of Stark.

"Stark, I'm pretty sure she wants to visit the Tower less now that you've said that." Nat scolded, gladly taking a beer from Tony's hands as he passed them out.

"Oh don't worry, I've never wanted to visit it at all." Thalia smiled innocently as she too, grabbed a beer from Tony. She couldn't help herself with the remark. Tony then feigned being hurt as he slapped a hand to his chest before sitting down on the couch.

"You are just so nice to everyone all the time aren't you?" Tony remarked sarcastically. "It's a mystery on why you don't get along with people."

"Only with you, Tony." She flashed a smile that was anything but friendly. "But I think I can manage going to the Tower for a short while without going insane."

"It's not as bad as you think," Steve chided in, "I for one am not a big fan of all the tech Stark has at the Tower, but I think you'll like it."

"Thanks buddy." Tony acknowledged, "I'll get you caught up one day."

"So…when's a good time for me to go? I'm sure you want to take a break for a bit since-"

"How about now?" Tony interrupted, standing up and pulling out his phone.

"Stark, you can't be serious." Steve argued, "We just got back-"

"I'm free all day." He countered, interrupting again, "I'll have JARVIS get a coffee pot goin'. Pepper probably wants me home now anyway." Steve just shook his head and Natasha had a straight face like she wasn't surprised by Tony's actions. Thalia was dumbfounded; she wondered for a moment if he ever gets any sleep. "So Peterson, you ready for the tour? Free of charge." He mused as he swiped along the screen of his phone. Thalia huffed out a quick breath, reminding herself it was better to get it over with.

"You bet."

* * *

The ride over to the Avengers Tower hadn't been entirely long as it too was located in Manhattan. However the drive seemed like forever to Thalia. One of the agents had been her and Tony's chauffeur as they sat in the back seat. Tony talked almost nonstop, mostly bragging about the self-sufficient building that he created. It wasn't until the tower came into view when Thalia realized how magnificent it was. It was no doubt one of the tallest buildings in the city, covered in marvelous glass all the way to the top. She could also see a giant 'A' perched on the side, flashing in all its glory.

"Told ya it was awesome." Tony teased, seeing Thalia's curious looks as she pressed her face against the window to get a better look.

Once they were inside the building, Thalia instantly had a better idea on how rich Tony Stark really was. Marbled floors, expensive looking furniture, pretty receptionist. The whole ordeal.

"Welcome back, Mr. Stark." A familiar voice suddenly filled the air, "Miss Potts is currently in a meeting. Shall I notify her of your return?" Thalia jumped slightly, looking around them frantically to pin point where the voice was coming from. It sounded vaguely familiar to someone they all knew.

"Vision?" She called out, "You're here too?" Tony tried his best to hold in a laugh that erupted from the back of his throat. He had forgotten that Vision was updated with JARVIS' matrix when he was first created.

"You must be Miss Peterson," JARVIS' voice filled the room again, "I am JARVIS, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Although Vision and I do sound remotely similar, I assure you we are not the same being." Something finally clicked in Thalia's mind at the mention of JARVIS.

"So your computer talks?" She asked Tony, who seemed to be taking too must interest in the furnishings of the lobby.

"Correction: Intelligent system." He noted, "But yes. And JARVIS, tell Pepper I'll be up in the lab. Get it ready for us if you please." Tony said, making his way towards the main elevator with Thalia following his trail.

"Will do sir."

When they reached the lab, which was located at the very top of the tower, Thalia was once again very impressed by how much glass made up the entirety of the floor. She couldn't help but also admire the amazing view that became convenient to them from how high up they were. The city of New York was beautiful and Thalia wished she had lived here sooner.

"Nice lab you got here." Thalia admitted when Tony led her to a rather large room filled with multiple tables with a variety of different projects on them.

"If there was a bed and a toilet here, I'd never leave." He stated simply, moving a giant glass monitor and pressing a few things to cause it to display all sorts of information that Thalia couldn't even begin to understand. "Look alive JARVIS, gonna need your help on Miss Peterson here today. And get some coffee goin' will ya?"

"Of course sir. Another individual analysis I'm guessing?"

"Bingo," Tony pointed as if JARVIS had an actual form, "I'll need you to see what elements you're able to quantify." Thalia then watched curiously from the side lines as Tony went to work to prep a few things. She definitely could tell that Tony was one of those people that always had to be doing something with their hands or else they'll go insane. She liked this part of him; the skilled, quiet, handy man instead of the cocky rich CEO that only cared about his own ego. For a brief moment she felt calmer than she had been since entering the building.

"Alright missy," Tony called out from behind a glass screen, "I need you to get over here and do your magic." She rolled her eyes at him but followed his instructions. She had spoken on his good behalf too soon.

"So, what exactly am I supposed to be doing here again?" She asked, skeptical on if Tony was going to ask her to remove her clothing too.

"Well, to put it very simply," Tony started as he walked over to the coffee pot and served himself a cup, "You're going to give JARVIS here a little show and tell like you did for the others before. He'll be able to examine how the magnetic energy deforms from the cells in your body. That way I can get a better concept on what enhancements to add to your suit. Coffee?" He asked finally, holding up the container to show that there was plenty left.

"Uhh, no thanks." She declined as politely as she could around Tony. She was just glad that getting into her underwear wasn't a requirement for the tests he was doing. Tony simply just shrugged and returned the coffee pot back to its original place.

"So you ready to do this or you getting cold feet already?" Tony asked, monitoring his screens to make sure things were good to go.

"No, I'm ready." She noted, as ready as she'll ever be.

"Perfect." Tony clapped his hands together, his attention falling on Thalia. "Just stay where you are." He looked around the room, searching for something.

"I believe what you're looking for is over on the far table to the left, sir." JARVIS informed. Thalia waited almost impatiently, tapping her feet against the glass floor as Tony scurried across the lab to pick up a small object that Thalia couldn't quite make out. It was no bigger than a soft ball as Tony causally carried it in his hand.

"This isn't anything special." Tony noted, seeing the curious look on her face, "Just welded four pieces of scrap metal together. Made this when I ran tests on the Maximoff kid." Immediately Thalia knew Tony had been talking about Wanda, most likely had her move the metal box around with her powers.

"She has a name, you know." Thalia defended, although she wasn't quite sure why she suddenly felt the need to defend her.

"I'm well aware." Tony argued shortly as he placed the cube a few feet away from Thalia, "Not really their biggest fan if you haven't noticed. Last time I checked you weren't either." That was a question she too had asked herself; her feelings towards them have definitely improved since her first night at the facility.

"I'm trying out this new thing of letting bygones be bygones," She joked, "Found it to be much less stressful." Tony's mouth suddenly pressed in a thin line against his face as he tried not to laugh at her statement, but he failed miserably. Thalia rolled her eyes and just shook her head, "Look Tony," trying to change the subject, "Are we doing this or not?"

"You had me at Tony." He mused.

For the next hour or two, Tony had ran multiple tests on Thalia to the point of exhaustion. Some tests he tried having her shield the cube in various way with different obstacles and he even tried taking a hammer to the force fields. Other tests included how well her offence panned out with one of Tony's Iron Legion bots. Each short sequence was then scanned and evaluated by JARVIS and the readings were then transferred to Tony to look over in the main monitor. Thalia was glad that the tests were finally done, feeling completely worn out as she wiped the sweat off her brow. She'd taken refuge on a nearby chair to catch her breath while Tony and JARVIS went over a few things.

"Hmm, interesting." Tony muttered to himself, but loud enough for Thalia to hear.

"What is it?" She asked. Without taking his eyes off the screen, Tony motioned for her to come over. She huffed in frustration, already making herself comfortable where she was, but complied anyway. As she got closer, Thalia could see that there were two pictures that Tony seemed to be comparing. In the images, it looked what seemed like small bubbles of different shades being connected by one strand. Her brows drew together as she had no idea what she was looking at.

"You see this here?" Tony asked finally, pointing to the left picture, "These are the molecules in the atmosphere after they reacted to yours from your body. And this one," He pointed to the other, "Are Maximoffs'"

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked quietly, still not making out any of this.

"Well I'm no scientist." He stated sarcastically, "But from JARVIS's calculations and from what I'm gathering from it, you and the twins derive from the same sort of power. A simpler way of looking at it: different breeds of the same species." Thalia's entire body tensed by Tony's words. She stared at the monitor for what seemed like forever, trying to make sense of it all but none of it did. It confused her to the point of recalling back to her years with Strucker, just to confirm that the scepter never came up in conversations of testing.

"There must be some kind of mistake."

"If you would like Miss Peterson, I could re-run my calculations for you." JARVIS inputted.

"No, that's okay." She said slowly, trying to process all of the information in her head.

"So let's hear it," Tony chided, making his way to get another cup of coffee, "You another one of Strucker's enhanced?"

"What-no!" She defended quickly, "That bastard died knowing he couldn't recreate my abilities on someone else."

"He came pretty damn close." Tony noted, grabbing a water bottle from his mini fridge and handing it to Thalia, to which she took gladly.

"Yeah well 'pretty damn close' wasn't what he wanted." She interjected as she took a big drink, quenching her thirst.

"I'm listening." He said shortly, his eyes on her.

"I'm not telling you anything." She spat, noticing a bit of anger flashing through his eyes.

"Stubborn aren't you?"

"You have no idea." Tony then sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Look Peterson, I'm trying to help you out here. You gotta trust me on this."

"I don't trust you." She said bluntly, casting a steely glance towards him.

"Then why are you here." It was more of a statement than a question which surprised Thalia a little bit.

"The extermination of HYDRA. That's the only reason I'm here. Or did you forget?" She argued, her patience running thin. She too could see that Tony wasn't exactly in a happy place at the moment either.

"So you think it's going to be that easy, hmm?" He started, "Think that you can just waltz in here, act all big and bad and leave once you get what you wanted? Rogers can sugar coat it for you all he wants but here's the thing about being a part of this team: this is the hardest job that you probably will ever have to endure. This isn't some minimum waged job at some overly-priced book store where you always get to 'go home at the end of the night'. Every god damn time we're out there, our lives are on the line. Every last one of us. We have our differences, yes. We don't get along at times, sure, but in the end we're always a team. You can convince yourself that you're doing the greater good all you want but HYDRA isn't the only threat out there. And if you're not willing to work with us, then you might as well tell Fury the sad news cause I sure as hell am not going to risk the lives of my teammates just because your arrogance and pride matters more." Tony's cold words had left her utterly speechless. She wanted to scream or hit him and tell him how uncalled for that was, but he was right. Down to every last damn word. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever before Thalia sighed, feeling defeated.

"I wasn't an enhanced." She admitted quietly, averting her eyes from Tony's, "To tell you the truth, even I don't know entirely how I became the way I am. But from what my parents told me many times before, I was born with these abilities. Cliché right?" She let out a humorless laugh. Tony nodded seriously and silence filled the air once again. Thalia couldn't pinpoint how she felt at the moment, she had just been lectured by her least favorite teammate and this time she had no comeback.

"So how long did HYDRA keeps tabs on you before they took you in?" Tony pried suddenly, receiving an angry look from Thalia. "Right, I'm being pushy. Sorry."

"Maybe next time when there's alcohol involved." She joked, trying to make light of the situation.

"You're starting to grow on me, Peterson." Tony pointed out, walking back over to his main monitor, "Anyway, let's go over a few things before you leave."

"What things do we need to go over? I thought we were done here?" She asked, her brows drawing together. Right now she wanted nothing more to just go back to the facility and have a nice hot shower, and maybe a nap.

"Almost, but I wanted to pinpoint some things you need to work on before you leave."

"Some things I need to work on?" She eyed Tony curiously, "Like what?"

"Well first things first," He started, "You need to work on control. You exert too much unneeded power too fast, causing you to run out of energy within the hour. Work on control and stamina, that'll be the most important. Raising your stamina will increase the limit of how you can use while you're in a fight, so I suggest you start hitting the gym pronto. I'll send Maria the details as soon as I'm done here." He swiped his hand across the screen, not looking at her, "That's all for today, kiddo. Your ride should be waiting for you in the lobby."

Thalia stared at Tony and started spacing out longer than she should have, but she couldn't shake off the fact that her time spent with him had went surprisingly well even when they got off on the wrong foot at first. Tony Stark wasn't just all talk and no show and it didn't take long for her to finally realize that. Tony Stark always knows what he's talking about and Thalia was going to take his advice and start training as soon as possible.

She made to leave the lab, knowing where the elevator was to go back to the lobby, but stopped right before the entrance to turn back to Tony, "Thanks Tony, for….today." She uttered loud enough for him to hear, implying that his little 'rant' was just what she needed to get her head in the right direction. He turned his attention away from the screen to give Thalia a surprised look, not expecting it from her.

"No problem." He said shortly, "I'll see you in a few weeks." And with that she nodded before finally leaving the lab, hoping that now they would have a mutual understanding and respect for each other as both teammates and friends.

Or until Tony decides to piss her off again.

* * *

 **And there you have it! I really liked this chapter because if gave both Thalia and Tony the chance to know each other more. I feel like they can relate a lot more to each other than they give credit for.**

 **And again thanks for being patient with me on this as this is my first Avengers fanfic, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Another chapter is finally here!**

 **I'm so sorry that it took so long. These past few months I've been having to get over this big metaphorical speed bump and recently I just haven't had the motivation to do anything. But no worries, I'm back! But again I'm really sorry, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. (And sorry if this chapter seems a bit all over the place or messy, I really just wanted to give something for you guys to read.)**

 **On a brighter note, I do have the next 3-4 chapters written out, they just need to be typed and edited.**

 **I won't give up on this story, I promise.**

* * *

It didn't take long for Thalia to get notification from Maria that her suit was finally ready. It had only taken a few days since leaving the Avengers Tower and since then Thalia had been waiting anxiously and impatiently for the final word.

Now she was on her way to meet Maria in Research and Development to see and try on the suit for the first time. She didn't want to admit it, but as she made her way there, she couldn't help the smile that started surfacing just from the excitement.

"Good Afternoon, Thalia." Maria greeted politely from the entrance of the department as Thalia came into view.

"Hey." She answered back, seeing Agent Hill in her usual formal getup and smart tablet clutched tightly against her chest.

"You ready to see the final project?" Maria asked, a slight smile on her face.

"You bet."

Maria had ushered Thalia past the busy department into a small room that Thalia hadn't seemed to notice from the previous times she's been there. When they got inside, the room was at least big enough to pass as a large changing room, and it appeared as one too. There were a few bright lights that hung from the ceiling and a large folding mirror that was positioned against one of the walls to their right. To the left, stood a large silver cargo holder about the same size as a normal door. Thalia could only guess that her suit lay just behind the metal lids.

"This is quaint." Thalia uttered sarcastically, not taking her eyes off the container.

"Well it's about to be quainter." Hill remarked back before tapping her tablet, causing the container to slowly open up. The suit itself was very sleek. It was mostly all black except for the dark purple streaks that ran down each side of the bodice, the upper sleeves and pant legs that wrapped all the way around. The whole thing was one piece, like a jump suit, but there were parts of it where one could tell were connected. The torso closely resembled a vest, with a zipper that ran from mid stomach all the way up to the neck, connecting to a collar that flared out just slightly. Different materials seemed to make up different parts, contrasting constantly from smooth to rough. All in all, it was everything and more than what Thalia imagined it would be. The only real question was, how comfortable it really was.

"The suit is mostly made up of spandex, leather, and neoprene. It is also lined with titanium mesh." Maria noted, answering Thalia's silent question. "You'll find that the suit will be both extremely comfortable and durable while you're out on the field."

"I'm guessing you want me to try the suit on now?" Thalia mused, stepping forward to get a better look at the suit. On the side panel of the opened container were matching fingerless gloves and boots and Thalia felt the overwhelming urge to run her hands on the soft fabric.

"Last time I'm asking you to get undressed, I promise." Maria joked, smiling slightly.

"You know Maria, I wouldn't mind so much if you'd ask me out for a drink beforehand." Thalia teased back before starting to strip herself of her clothes as Maria laughed and turned away.

The suit did in fact fit very well, better than any other form of clothing that Thalia has ever worn. It was definitely tight, leaving no loose fabric to hang out as it clung to her body. She almost felt comfortably naked, with the positive exception that the suit kept everything in place. She looked at herself in the three way mirror, the whole ensemble put together on her body. The image seemed so weird to her, like she had been looking at someone who isn't herself. Someone who was more of a hero than a vigilante.

"Stark made a few suggestions on the suit," Maria noted, jolting Thalia out of her thoughts, "You see the small brackets on the back of the gloves? They're enhancers he developed that magnetize your abilities, making it so you don't have to exert so much energy. The same brackets are located at the bottom of your boots as well. Tony thought they would help you control your abilities." Thalia looked curiously from the back of her gloves to lifting her shoes to examine the soles. The small brackets had made Thalia feel a little bit handicapped, but she knew he meant well. But by no means was she going to let it slide the next time she saw Tony Stark.

"So when do I get to try out the suit?" Thalia asked, turning towards Maria.

"Today if you'd like. The small training room won't be occupied today. I'll be sure to grant you access to it," She stated, flipping through her tablet, "Also you'll be starting individual training with Romanoff this week. I'll send you the details of your schedule to your phone."

"When do I start training with the rest of the group? I mean as a team?"

"That won't come until later I'm afraid. But I assure you after a few weeks you'll be training with the others and then on missions soon after." Thalia groaned at the thought of weeks before actually going on a mission. She knew she had to work on a few things, but how much training did she really need?

Without arguing furthermore, Thalia had gotten out of her suit and back into her casual clothes before going over a few last things with Maria. She stated that the suit would be transported to her room and within a few hours she'll be able to use the small training room to her hearts content, just as long as she doesn't over work herself from the excitement. Since the twins had gotten back from their small mission, Maria had agreed to meet up Thalia later once she was done with a debriefing to show her how to use the room. And with that she complied while counting down the seconds until Maria called her again.

"The main console is very easy to use," Maria informed as her and Thalia stepped foot inside one of the facilities' training rooms. "Each tab you press here transitions the room to your liking, whether you're doing target practice, extraction protocol, offense, etc. There's different levels of difficulties that you can set for each phase as well, just make sure you pace yourself first. You've got all the time in the world." Hill continued to show Thalia the different options she had on customizing the perfect training session to fit her needs. She had decided that a simple target practice would make do for testing out her new suit as she set the training room to generate a line of robotic figures.

"I'll leave you to it then," Maria noted before turning on her heel to leave, "Let me know if you need anything." Thalia nodded, not taking her eyes off of her first target. Excitement filled her as she stepped closely towards the metal dummy, clenching her fists to get a good feel for the gloves. They weren't too tight or too loose. In fact they were perfect, feeling like they were just another layer of skin that responded in sync with every small move.

"Here goes nothing." She muttered to herself, readying her left hand for a punch. She counted to three, breathing in and out as she goes, focusing energy in just her hand before throwing a punch right into the main body of the robot. The dummy's metal surface obliterated on impact, overwhelming Thalia as pieces of debris flew in all directions. She hadn't expected the gloves to work so well, knowing that without the gloves she would've only sent the robot flying a few yards. "Jeez Stark, I really should give you more credit than I usually do." She joked to herself before moving on to the victim in line.

Thalia had spent almost the rest of the afternoon doing the same things over and over again on each line of dummies that generated for her. She wondered how many of them there were stored underground or if somehow the training room just made more with each new request. Maria's words rand through her head about pacing herself and she did take those words in for consideration as she took her time, getting used to her new adjustments. She just hoped that her other training with Natasha wasn't going to be as tiring.

To her disappointment, training had been brutal for Thalia. She had thought it would be exciting and fun to be training privately with the world renowned Black Widow, but to her realization Natasha didn't plan to go easy on her. Not in the slightest. She did, however, appreciate the fact that Natasha treated her like a respectable student more than a kid she had to babysit over their sessions.

They mainly worked on what Thalia already knew in regards to fighting. The way she usually executed her moves on her opponents was, how Natasha would put it lightly, 'a little sloppy and needs improvement.' Although they both had different fighting styles and Natasha was much more skilled than Thalia was, she couldn't help but wonder where Thalia had gotten her skills from.

"Where did you learn how to fight, anyway?" Nat asked during one of their training days.

Thalia shrugged, "Whenever Strucker was away from base his men weren't always so nice to me." She said quietly in a harsh tone. Nat understood almost right away what Thalia had meant by their unkindness. A small girl such as herself was more than easy prey.

"Did you kick their asses?" She asked.

"Of course I did, had no choice."

"Good." Nat muttered, hoping those men got what they deserved.

Even with the twins being back from their mission, Thalia had no time to even catch up with them with everything that's happened, especially with Pietro (She didn't even bother knowing what their mission was about). With transitioning from sessions at the gym to training with Nat, she barely had time for herself. The only times she did see the others were moving back and forth through the mess hall, and even then the others too were busy with their own schedules.

Thalia didn't mind the business, however. It had been a good distraction and the constant hustling and bustling had made time pass by faster. And for the next few weeks, she had gotten very used to the repetitive schedule that consisted only of training, eating, and sleeping.

"Okay team, this'll be our first training session with Thalia," Steve noted firmly, looking at his peers, "We'll start with a simple extraction routine. Everyone will follow their normal protocol." He then turned to Thalia, "I want you to follow up the team, shield any incoming damage and keep your eyes open on your surroundings, Thal." She nodded slightly, not entirely happy that she had to stay behind, but complied anyway. She was starting to think that patience was the only thing she really excelled in since joining the Avengers.

Steve and Nat continued to give everyone more details in their extraction mission. The group was positioned at the very entrance of the long training room where at the very end were said to be another group of 'hostages' needing to be saved before they are killed. While they explained and gave instructions, Thalia knew it would've been simpler to shield herself as she charged through every obstacle of the course to get the job done. But she knew that the point on doing the exercise was to work on how well they did as a team now that she joined. Still, if they were working on teamwork, she still didn't understand why Tony was the only that didn't have to show up for practice. She guessed that his 'doesn't play well with others' motto applied to more ways than one.

As soon as the buzzer went off, everyone went to work immediately. It was all happening so fast as Thalia watched Steve and Nat leading the way as everyone else followed. Sam and Vision took flight to the air and Pietro was already gone, making his perimeter rounds as turrets and robots emerged from the floor and walls. Needless to say it was definitely a little overwhelming. Thalia looked to Wanda, who seemed very calm and collected as if she's done this a hundred times before.

"It's not as bad as it look." Wanda called out to her over the noise that was already filling the room. Thalia nodded quickly, not bothering to figure out if Wanda had read her mind again or if it was just intuition. They were already falling behind as a small war started waging in the large training room. She cleared her mind of all distracting thoughts and quickly followed Wanda to catch up with the rest of the team.

Bullets and explosions were everywhere. Both Wanda and Thalia already had their hands full when they caught up, shielding any bullets or beams that the rest of the team couldn't dodge. The leaders were still up ahead, fighting through another line of robots that generated out from the ground.

"Pietro, watch our six." Thalia heard Steve's voice from her ear piece, and soon after, a blue blur flew past from behind her, obliterating a scattered bot that was left behind.

They continued like this as they bypassed defenses and more robots, getting closer and closer to the 'hostages' that needed to be saved. To her surprise, Thalia was keeping up a lot better than she thought she would, thankful that her hard work in training had paid off in a way.

After what seemed like forever of the same repetition, the team finally broke through the last line of defense: another line of robot dummies. Natasha was able to slip past the barrier while Steve and everyone else held down the commotion outside and was able to disable the alarm that could've failed their mission if it was triggered. As soon as the alarm was disabled, almost everything came to a halt. The turrets that located both on the ground and the walls retracted back under ground and the robots stopped all movements, as if a switch was suddenly shut off. Thalia didn't realize it at first, but the entire team quickly gathered around her, waiting for further instructions from Steve while he pulled his shield out of a lifeless dummy before it collapsed to the ground. She also realized that she seemed to be the only one catching her breath, with her hands on her knees as she tried to slow her ragged breathing. She really needed more training apparently.

"Not bad." Natasha announced while standing next to one of the main control consoles, getting everyone's attention, "We actually beat our last recorded time by 12 seconds." A few noises of acknowledgement went around the group, but Thalia's ragged breathing seemed to drown out everyone else.

"Great work everyone," Steve announced finally, "I think we'll call it a day, regroup again the day after tomorrow, same time."

"Wait what?" Thalia interrupted, not appealing to what she was hearing. She straightened herself up to look directly at Steve, "It's only like 10:30 in the morning. Can't we go again?" She ignored the few looks she earned from around the team, even Pietro's, who was now right next to her. Silence hung in the air as Thalia and Steve held each other's gaze for a few seconds before he exhaled slowly.

"I don't want you to push yourself." He said softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. He had a stern but concerned look on his face, the kind that he only gave Thalia whenever she couldn't hold her tongue. The same look a parent would give to their kid when they were scolding them. The same look her father used to give her. Maybe that's the one reason why Thalia could never hold her ground with Steve; he reminded her too much of an older brother figure that she never asked for.

"Fine." She said shortly as she crossed her arms, averting her eye away from Steve and everyone else, which only earned a smile from him. The team was then dismissed, leaving Thalia feeling more frustrated than ever. She was hoping that they would at least spend a good part of the day training, that's what she was expecting. Sure she was out of breath, but she was fine now. And to make matters even worse, she now has the rest of her day with nothing to do.

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it soon." The sudden voice snapped Thalia out of her thoughts, bringing her back from wherever her mind was drifting off to. She looked up to see Pietro beaming down at her, his usual smile that made her insides twist. She wondered how long he'd been standing there, knowing that she probably made weird faces while deep in thought.

"Yeah, I guess so." She uttered, not knowing what else to say, "Thanks." She half expected him to say more, but he just nodded before turning to join the others on leaving the room. As Thalia stood there, watching the back of Pietro's head, a crazy thought suddenly came to her.

"Hey, Pete!" Thalia called out, almost regretting her decision. He stopped suddenly to look back at her, an eyebrow raised. She suddenly felt her heart rate picking back up as she casually jogged the remaining distance between them.

"What's wrong?" He asked softly, "What is it?" Her eyes darted in every direction besides his and she herself didn't know what possessed her to do what she was about to do.

"Do you wanna maybe…like…hangout today?" She asked, pausing after every few words. Pietro had a look on his face like he couldn't believe Thalia Peterson was asking him to hangout.

"Really?"

"Well, I mean if you're busy I understand…I mean-" She wanted to smack herself for how awkward the conversation was going. She didn't know why she was getting so damn nervous.

"No no, I'm not busy." He smiled but she wasn't even meeting his gaze, "I'd love to. I just need to change."

"Well yeah obviously." She remarked, forcing her smile into a smirk, even though she wouldn't mind having him out and about in his suit. She shook the thought away quickly as her eyes landed on Maria Hill, who was conversing with Steve right at the entrance of the room. "We're gonna need a car." She added before making her way to Maria.

"Where are we going?" Pietro asked from behind her as he followed.

"Hell if I know." She joked, hearing a small laugh escape from him.

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 **So now Thalia has her suit finally! Now I think she just needs a 'superhero' name to go with it. Any suggestions? :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Here's another chapter for you guys! Enjoy reading and let me know what you think. :) (*Also I still haven't had any suggestions on Thalia's hero name. I need some names!)**

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"Maria, can you get a car ready for me? Or…however that works?" Thalia asked Hill as she and Pietro walked side by side behind her, all making their way with the others out of the training room.

"I can have a chauffeur ready in ten minutes," She answered quickly, taking out her phone, "Where do you need to go?" Thalia and Pietro looked at each other quickly before Pietro shrugged, again not really knowing where they were going. It was, after all, Thalia's idea to go out. He was still in shock that she even asked him to go with her.

"Well, I'm not really sure yet," Thalia laughed slightly, scratching the back of her head, "I was wondering if _we_ could just take a car instead of having a driver. We just wanted to spend the day around the city, you know? Not really sure on a set destination." She forced a smile as Maria looked at them both curiously, an eyebrow raised. It seemed like she was banking on a few thoughts in her head as she had a look of regret on her face before she finally sighed.

"I'll have a car ready for you both in the garage. Keep both of your phones on so we can contact you when need be. Who's driving?"

"I will." Thalia said simply before Pietro could even think. Maria nodded before giving her phone a few taps.

"When should I have it ready?"

"I guess in half an hour?" Thalia questioned, shrugging as she looked to Pietro as he nodded.

"Should give us enough time to get out of these sweaty clothes." He stated, a slight smile resting on his face.

"That'll be more than enough time then," Maria said, "I'll let you know when the car is ready." And with that she made her way to leave to attend to her other duties, leaving Thalia and Pietro alone.

"Have you thought of where we're going yet?" He asked her, an amused look on his face.

"Nope." She stated bluntly. She really had no idea what she had in mind; she hadn't been in the city enough to know where anything was, but she figured Manhattan was filled with things to do. All she really wanted was to get out of their usual schedule for once and finally get some real fresh air. "We'll just wing it I guess."

They both met down at the garage around the same time when Maria had texted them both that their car was ready. Pietro was dressed in his usual dark jeans and dark shirt with his dark jacket, his hair still a little damp from taking a quick shower. Thalia was dressed in high waisted black shorts and black tights, paired with a fitted crop top that showed her midriff only slightly along with the same dark green jacket she had on the night they first met. Pietro didn't understand her choice in clothing but at the same time he realized it was the only sort of clothing he could ever picture her in. Besides the usual sporty wear they all wore around the facility.

"Did I wear my shorts inside out or something?" Thalia's voice came suddenly, jolting him out of his thoughts. He hadn't realized that he'd been starring at her as she made her way over to the black SUV he'd been standing next to.

"You hair," He started, trying to change the subject, "You wore it down today." She peered down her shoulders, her brows drawing together.

"It appears so." She teased, casting him a sly smile, "Didn't know you could tell the difference from when I'm wearing my hair up or down."

"Well I like your hair down," He countered back, ignoring her failed attempts at teasing him, "It looks nice."

"Thanks Pete," She said shortly, pushing down the butterflies that started surging in her stomach from the compliment; she'd always thought her long and wavy hair was just a big unruly mess and couldn't understand why anyone would like it. "Now get your ass in the car."

He couldn't help himself from smiling at her order, "Yes ma'am."

"I still don't understand why we're taking a car." Pietro complained as they drove down the freeway.

"Because I can't run at a million miles per hour." Thalia pointed out, a slight irritation to her tone. She casted him a side glance, noticing a small smile on his face.

"I could carry you, you know."

"Hah, no thanks. I think I'd rather enjoy as much as I can driving this car. Top notch, am I right?" And she was right, the SUV they drove had just about everything: leather seats, full navigation system, surround sound, etc. She had never had an opportunity to drive anything so high in class and boy was she enjoying it.

"Do you even know where you're going?" Pietro asked, now that they were finally on the road.

"Of course." She answered sarcastically, "We're going to the city." She couldn't help but laugh slightly, hearing a frustrated sigh escaping Pietro's mouth. "I want to go to a book store." She added after a few minutes of silence fell over them.

"'Course you do."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Thalia asked, her voice an octave higher, a little taken back from his words.

"Your room is filled with books and you worked at a book store." He mused, "It's only obvious."

"Oh, please," She scoffed, "Then enlighten me on what you would want to do. I'm sure you have tons of ideas on what we should do."

"Even doing almost nothing would still be more exciting than your ideas." He argued back as he glared at her seconds before they both started laughing out loud.

"Don't make me turn this car around, Maximoff." Thalia warned, a smile forming on her lips.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

To Pietro's disappointment, they did in fact stop at a book store as their first destination. He didn't find anything interesting as he followed Thalia around the whole store, groaning like a small child grocery shopping with their parent.

"Cut it out, you big baby." Thalia scolded, "What, not finding anything to your liking here?"

"This just wasn't what I had in mind when you asked me to come with you today."

"What did you have in mind, hmm?" She asked him, turning to look at him with her steely eyes.

"I am a little hungry."

"You're always hungry." She sighed, picking up a book off the shelf to examine the cover quickly before putting it back. She looked to Pietro again and saw the expression on his face as if just being in the expresso scented store made him miserable. She too had to admit that she felt a bit hungry. "Fine, fine," She sighed again, "There's a sports bar just down the street. We can grab a bite to eat there."

When they arrive at the restaurant, it wasn't as busy or loud as they expected it to be, which was good on their part considering drunken rowdiness would be the last thing they wanted. They grabbed a few seats at the bar, not caring that it was in the middle of the afternoon to have a few drinks.

"Would this be considered a date if I'm paying?" Pietro joked as they looked over their menus that the bar tender provided for them as he took their drink orders.

"We're splitting the check." Thalia said firmly, earning a small laugh from him. They ordered their food (burgers and fries) when the bartender returned and small chatted to the best of their abilities until their food came.

"So why is your hair all silvery, anyway?" Thalia asked, reaching over and touching a few locks. He shrugged as he sipped his drink, not expecting that question.

"Don't know, must've been a reaction to the experiments." Thalia nodded, regretting slightly that she asked. But she couldn't help but be curious.

"Do you like it though?" She looked at him closely, "The hair, I mean."

"Do you like it?" He asked back, smiling at her. She eyed him curiously, squinting and placing her hand under her chin to examine him as if he was an exhibit from an art museum.

"Would be cooler if your beard grew silver too." She joked once before taking a sip of her usual SoCo.

Their food had arrived shortly after and they were surprised at how good it had been considering they were just in a simple sports bar. Usually people only come to sports bar for the giant flat screens and endless happy hour drinks, but they were just glad that they'd been wrong. They ate in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the comfortable quietness that fell over them. Thalia smiled to herself slightly, glad of the decision she made on asking Pietro to tag along, even though she would never admit it. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this calm and worry free, a day to just relax.

"What are you smiling about?" Pietro asked softly, enjoying the foreign view.

"Oh nothing," She sang, taking a small bite of a fry, "Just thinking how cool it would be if me and your sister traded powers." Pietro had a confused look on his face as he was caught completely off guard on the weird thought that was just put into his head.

"Cool?" Was all he could muster as he stared at her like she'd just grown a third hand out of her head.

"I mean come on," Thalia explained, "It would. She can like tap into people's minds and pick stuff up with a wave of her hand."

"You mean you're not still mad about her…you know."

"I'd rather not talk about it." She answered shortly, "But yeah, I guess I'm not anymore."

"Well if it's any consolation, she's really sorry about it." Pietro noted, suddenly feeling not too hungry anymore as he set down the rest of the burger. Thalia could see how quickly his expression changed. She knew that he was sticking up for his sister, but also she knew that Wanda _was_ sorry for what she did.

"I know," Thalia said after a few moments of silence. "But don't you worry, your sister and I are on good terms." She then clapped a hand on his back along with a hearty laugh, trying to pass it off as a manly gesture but failed miserably as she retracted her hand from the pain. The smack was so loud she was sure the entire restaurant heard it. She was just surprised that Pietro seemed unaffected by it.

"So you wouldn't want to switch powers with me?" He questioned her, a smirk spreading across his face.

"Nah," She teased, "I mean I like to take my time every now and then. Super speed is a little cliché don't you think?" She looked over to Pietro to see what kind of reaction she would get from him. Almost immediately his expression changed; he was definitely offended.

"Cliché?" Pietro repeated, placing a hand over his heart. Thalia resisted the urge to laugh from all the amusement."This coming from the girl who can create force fields? Talk about cliché." He countered, laughing slightly.

"Hey! Why do you think I said it would be cool to trade places with your sister? I never said that my powers were interesting, Maximoff." Thalia was smiling widely now at how their conversation escalated. They were speaking a little louder now and the people that were seated close to them at the bar were giving them weird looks. They finished the last bit of their food and drinks as the bar tender gave them the bill for their meal. This was going to be the first time that Thalia had actually paid for anything since joining the Avengers. She took out her wallet from her bag and plucked out her shiny new bank card that had been provided by Maria. She still hadn't had the chance to view what the balance was since she'd been so busy, but she figured there was more than enough to pay for her lunch.

"I'm gonna run to the ladies' room." She told Pietro before setting her card on the bill and hopping off the stool to make her way for the bathroom. They had been there for a while now as the restaurant started filling up with people and noise. Thalia was kind of glad that they were just about done as all the rowdiness would've been a pain.

When she got out of the stall to wash her hands, she quickly fixed her makeup and ruffled her messy hair before leaving the room. A small smile still resting on her face; she was in such a good mood, she couldn't remember the last time she was this cheery. Most likely it would've been one of her drunken nights with Ashley at their usual bar, but that had taken _a lot_ of alcohol.

But all of her good thoughts were drained away too quickly as she came into view of the main foyer and saw a random girl chatting happily to Pietro. The girl was definitely a little drunk, seeing that she swayed slightly every few seconds, her face flushed. Thalia stood there unable to move from her place, just watching the two. The girl wasn't ugly, but she wasn't gorgeous either from what Thalia thought. She didn't know why she still stood there, in a trance as if the image itself made her extremely uncomfortable. A small tinge of anger started rising inside of her that she couldn't explain. Pietro and she were just friends, if even that. She had no reason to be mad. But when she saw the girl place a delicate hand on his upper arm, something within her snapped.

Thalia walked over to the two casually in small steps, not taking her eyes off of the dirty blonde. She had on a very short, dark blue sequined dress that barely covered anything, along with six-inch heels that only accentuated her desperation.

"Hey, Pete." Thalia finally said once she reached them, putting a great emphasis on the 'T' in his name. He turned to look at her and his smile faded when he saw the angry look on her face. But it wasn't directed towards him, it was directed towards the girl he'd been talking to. He couldn't even remember what her name was; she had appeared out of nowhere once Thalia had left and just started chatting with him. "Who's your friend?" She asked with such sweetness in her voice that it almost came off as poison.

"It's Stephanie." The girl answered, giggling slightly as she ignored Thalia eyeing her up and down.

"And…who the hell are you, Stephanie?" Thalia asked, not able to hold down her irritation. Stephanie still had her hand on Pietro's arm without a care in the world, and it disgusted Thalia. Pietro's eye widened slightly, seeing the all too familiar vicious look on Thalia's face that could send men running for the hills. He wanted to do something before catastrophe broke out in the restaurant, but he couldn't help but find Thalia's jealousy amusing.

"What, are you like his girlfriend or something?" Stephanie asked, now it was her turn to eye Thalia up and down.

"And what it I am?" She countered, edging closer to Pietro which surprised him. The girl's expression changed suddenly when she realized that Thalia was not someone she should be messing with. She slowly but surely, released her grasp on Pietro and started backing away.

"Geez, sorry. Didn't know he was taken." She stumbled over her words. Thalia then grabbed Pietro's arm and rested her head against him, putting emphasis that she meant what she said.

"I'm sure you didn't." Thalia said through a tight smile. When the girl finally retreated to her own table, she released her hold on him. Pietro was still in a daze at what just happened in front of him. Thalia then quickly signed her receipt before making her way out of the place.

"You coming?" She called back to him, not even bothering to look back. He didn't need to be told twice before getting off his chair to follow her.

"Why are you smiling like an idiot?" Thalia asked as she drove down the streets of Manhattan, noticing that Pietro had a huge grin on his face since they'd left the restaurant.

"So, boyfriend huh?" He teased, earning a snort from her.

"Oh please," She rolled her eyes, "I was just doing you a favor. It was obvious she wanted nothing more than to have you go back to her place for the night."

"How do you know? You don't even know what we were talking about."

She rolled her eyes once more and waved her free hand at him, "Please, do tell."

"Well, at first she came over to tell me how 'cool' my hair was." Pietro started as Thalia let out a small huff of frustration, "And then she commented on how sexy my accent was." Thalia was laughing now from his cockiness, but it definitely wasn't a laugh of enjoyment.

"Okay, you are sooo full of yourself, Maximoff."

"Only at times, Peterson." He teased back, "Where are we going now anyway?"

"Hm, don't know." She shrugged, "It's only about three, and we have plenty of time to do whatever we want. Just relax and listen to the music." Thalia looked over at the middle console and saw that 'Latch' by Sam Smith was playing on the radio. The song played softly through the speakers and had a catchy tune to it as Thalia started shifting her shoulders to the rhythm of the beat.

"You should really focus on driving, Thalia." Pietro scolded to only be shushed by Thalia before she turned the volume up a few notches and moving around in the driver's seat more. He was laughing now at her attempts to dance and drive at the same time. After a few moments he too couldn't help but join her and move awkwardly to the beat.

When the song was finally over, Thalia had turned the volume back down as the commercial played. They now sat quietly in their comfortable silence again with Thalia driving, on hand on the wheel and the other resting on the middle console. He felt the urge to grab and hold her hand, but knew that it would just turn their good mood into a bad situation. He couldn't help but think back to the night where she had confessed about her family to him. He wondered if they'll ever have a touching moment like that again, without alcohol involved.

"Thalia." Pietro muttered, not entirely sure where he was going with the conversation.

"Hmm?"

"You know a few weeks ago when you first came-" But his words were suddenly cut off by a sudden jerk of the car.

"Shit!" Thalia exclaimed, "I think the tire blew out!" The car swerved back and forth as the front window displayed a virtual diagram of the car.

"Damaged detected, front right tire." A robotic voice filled the car, "Warning: Incoming traffic in .02 miles." Thalia tried her best to take control of the car, but the force of the vehicle was just too great. Panic started rising in her chest as they came closer to the busy intersection and before they knew it, everything came to a halt when an oncoming car crashed into the passenger side.

"Armor integrity at 43%. Sprain detected." They heard the monotone voice again after the crash. Thalia and Pietro were both in a daze, the air bags now deflating from their faces. Thalia wasn't too hurt from the crash, just a now developing soreness in her neck from the whiplash and a few cuts and bruises. She was glad that the intersection stopped abruptly so no more cars came their way. She looked over at Pietro and saw the pained look on his face. The other car had hit the passenger side.

"Are you okay?" She asked, seeing that the passenger door was dented inward. She was surprised that the crash hadn't been worse, considering the force of the impact, but the car they drove was definitely no ordinary car.

"I think my leg is stuck." Pietro muttered, struggling in his seat trying to pull his leg out. The car that hit them kept the door in place, preventing any part from moving.

"Stop moving, Pietro." Thalia scolded, "You're going to hurt yourself even more." She peered out the windows, noticing a few people now gathering around the accident. The other guy who crashed seemed okay as he staggered out of his car, a small gash on his forehead. "I'm going to see if I can move the car so we can get you out of here." Pietro looked to her and nodded, knowing that his well-being was what was important to her at the moment. Thalia made to leave the car, but before she got anywhere, a few loud booms sounded throughout the area as a few giant cracks appeared on the windshield.

Gunshots.

The crowd that gathered screamed from the noise and scrambled away quickly, leaving the two in the car.

"Window integrity at 22%." The car announced. Thalia and Pietro looked at each other for a few seconds, confusion filling them both.

"What the hell was that?" He asked cautiously, but didn't expect an answer from her and she too wouldn't have any idea. She peered out the front window, making out a small shadowy figure in the distance. It was hard to decipher much as the cracks on the windshield blurred their vision. It seemed like the figure was actually walking _towards_ them and as it got closer, Thalia could feel her breath catch in her throat.

It was a man, strapped in military hear of a bullet-proof vest with weapons strapped to almost every limb. He was tall and stocky, with dark hair and even darker eyes. A wicked smile plastered on his face that sent a shrill of fear through Thalia. He stood about a hundred feet from their car, holding what seemed to be a giant gun of some sort. She didn't know how much trouble they were in until she realized that the gun he was holding was actually a rocket launcher, aimed straight for them.

"Oh god." Was the only thing that came out of Thalia's mouth before the mad man pulled the trigger.


	15. Chapter 15

**Another chapter finally posted! I know it's been a few months but trust me I've been planning and writing this story way ahead. It's just the editing that gets me. :/ Well I hope you guys like this chapter, it's been pretty quiet recently so I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this story. Let me know what you guys think. (Apologize in advance if there's any spelling or grammar issues that I missed.)**

 **And as always, thanks for sticking with me.**

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Pietro and Thalia shared the same look for a split second as he tried again to pull his leg out, more frantically this time. But even if he had managed to get his leg unstuck, they had no time to get out of the car. Thalia quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and moved as fast as her body could over to Pietro on the passenger side. She looped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as she shielded them both, hoping that it was enough. In the next instant, the rocket came shooting towards them, exploding everything on site. The entire SUV was obliterated from the two, leaving an awkward site as they ended up on the ground. To their luck, Pietro's leg was finally freed. A few wordless moments passed between the two as they caught their breath from their near-death experience. But they weren't out of the woods yet. More screaming came in all directions as the city folk scampered to evacuate the intersection.

"How's your leg?" Thalia asked softly, seeing his right pant leg had been torn with blood seeping through the holes.

"I'll be fine." He reassured, his voice wavering slightly, "It's not as bad as it looks."

"Come out and play, Avenger scum!" A deep voice called out. They both drew their attention from each other, directing it to the man that was still making his way towards them. His rocket launcher was now strapped on his back and in his hands, held an assault rifle. The dark smile still stretched across his scarred face. He fired off a few rounds their way, but Thalia blocked them easily.

"Can you stand?" She asked Pietro quietly, keeping her eyes on the intruder. He muttered a quiet 'yes' as he staggered to get up, with Thalia lending her shoulder as support. Pietro put all of his weight on his left foot, gently testing his right to see how bad it was.

"I can walk a little, I think." He noted. The pain wasn't as bad as he was expecting it to be, feeling thankful for the obvious adrenaline that started kicking in.

"Get somewhere safe and call the others, I'll handle this psycho." She ordered before they parted ways. Pietro wanted to protest; he wanted to tell her it was too dangerous and that he didn't want her to take on that guy alone. But there was no persuading her and what help was he going to be in the line of fire? So he complied with her request and looked for a safe place to take cover before dialing Maria.

Thalia started making her way towards him, blocking more bullets effortlessly as she tied her hair up into a ponytail. Bullets wouldn't do any harm to her, and she had a feeling that he knew too. He was just toying with her, which made her blood boil even more rapidly. The guy laughed maniacally as if this whole thing was some sort of game.

"Finally decided to face me, sweetheart?" He exclaimed, smiling at her, "I'd love a little challenge." She was more than ready to wipe (or rip) that horrid smile clean off his face, furious that her day was already ruined.

"Oh, shut the hell up already." Thalia spat coldly before taking off towards him at top speed, ignoring the pain already rising in her neck from the accident. The man laughed again as he tossed aside his gun nonchalantly, bracing himself for her. She came at him full force, urging to give him the beating he deserves. As she got closer, she noticed how big he really was as her eyes took in his size. He was at least six and a half feet tall and his bulky muscles bulged beneath the black short sleeved shirt he wore.

She convinced herself that he was no different that the henchmen from HYDRA as she swung an upwards punch right into the side of his face. He blocked the hit without any effort, pushing her back slightly. She almost lost her balance as she stumbled backward. The sheer strength that she instantly felt form him almost worried her. Okay, maybe this was different than all the time at HYDRA, but nothing she couldn't overcome right?

"Aw, what's the matter," His loud voice echoed out, "You getting scared?" An annoying laugh following shortly after. The taunting had drained any doubts in Thalia's mind and again she directed her fist to his open midsection. The punch seemed to only amuse him more as he didn't move.

"So puny!" He cackled, quickly bringing a large, calloused hand up to her throat, clenching around it tightly. "How could he expect you to be anything special, you're so weak!" He picked her up off the floor with his one hand, a small whimper escaping her mouth. The pain around her throat flared up and it was hard to think of anything else but that. She had no time to think about who the man was referring to as every cell in her body fought to survive. She then brought up her lower body and quickly planted both feet against his chest, pulling them both apart with the sheer force of her power. She landed unpleasantly on the floor, gasping for breath while he made way to get back up. Sirens blared and echoed all around as the NYPD set up perimeters around the intersection.

"Stay back!" She tried to yell, waving her hands at them, seeing a few stray officers trying to get close to the fight. She turned her attention back to the man, who now had his assault rifle back in his hands.

"Let's see how far you can reach with your pathetic shields." He growled, direction his aim towards a crying little boy at the end of the street. The boy was leaned against a light pole, crying for his mom.

He was right, she knew her shields couldn't reach that far and this wasn't going to be the day she decided to practice that fact, yet the police wouldn't make it to the boy in time either.

"Oh, God dammit." Thalia muttered as he took aim. Her mind raced to think of something. Anything.

Before the trigger was pulled, Thalia mustered all the power she could and slammed her fist into the asphalt. The shockwave traveled throughout the intersection, causing the man to lose his footing and fall backwards. She took the distraction as an opportunity to reach the boy as fast as her legs could carry her, before that maniac could get back up again. She made it in time with just a split second to spare, tumbling forward to grab the boy and shielding them both from a cascade of bullets.

"I got ya, kiddo." She reassured, surprised that the boy immediately clutched onto her for dear life as the gunman kept shooting. A small feeling of relief washed over her, but they were still nowhere near being safe. In fact, Thalia was worse off now than she was before, now with an innocent life at her side. She couldn't afford to make any mistakes at this point. Not a single one.

There was no sign of Pietro or any of her teammates and she could feel her powers start to wane. She hadn't felt this exhausted since her first week of training. "How much ammo does this guy even have?!" She spoke quietly, trying to think of a solution; the only reasonable option was to somehow turn the bullets against him.

She hoisted the boy up against her hip, still shielding them both as she started closing the distance. "I'm gonna get you home to your mommy, okay?" She reassured the kid again, "Just stick with me kid and you'll be home in no time."

As Thalia got closer, the man's expression changed; he no longer had the same sadistic smile on his face as the bullets started ricocheting in his direction. He tried backing away to gain some distance but failed miserably when a bullet grazed his arm.

"Shit!" He growled, dropping the gun to grip his wound. Thalia took this moment of opportunity get even closer and turn the shield on him, entrapping him in his own little unbreakable prison.

"Someone come take him!" Thalia forced out towards the officers that took refuge behind their cars, "Hurry!" One of the officers came jogging into view, him darting his eyes frantically towards Thalia's shield. "Find his parents please," She instructed, "And stay back and clear the area of any civilians."

"Yes ma'am." The cop replied curtly without any questions, prying the little boy from her side before retreating back over the barricades.

When she made sure they were both safe from any harm, Thalia turned her attention back to her opponent. He was frantically banging his fists against the force field. She sighed heavily; she was almost at her limit. Her throat was nearly on fire from it being so irritated and every muscle in her body ached, but even that wouldn't stop her now.

"I'm finishing this." She uttered, making one last attempt to charge at him. He didn't even have enough time to process what was happening when the shield finally dissolved into thin air. He let out one small huff of triumph before Thalia attacked him. She wasted no time shooting a power punch at his midsection again, catching him off guard and causing him to heave over in pain. She then grabbed him by the base of his neck, bringing her knee up to his chest, a painful grunt escaping his lips. Ferocity burned from within her as she started gaining a second wind. She didn't need anyone to help her, she was an _Avenger_. She went after him with everything she had, putting all her effort and training she had into it. Kicks and punches came right after another and his attempts to block them became more useless with each blow. He was at his limit when she finally stopped, him all bruised and battered.

"Who are you and who the hell sent you?" She pried, almost breathless, grabbing him by the collar and meeting him eye to eye. He spat some blood down on the floor before laughing slightly.

"You'll know soon enough, Thalia Peterson." The wicked smile found its way back on his swollen face, "And you're going to regret it." Her heart stopped, hearing her name coming out of his mouth. A look of satisfaction shown through his bruises as he laughed again.

"I'm sure I will, but you're going to regret this," She spat, gathering her equilibrium before putting all of her remaining energy into a kick to his chest, sending him flying back a few yards. He landed roughly on top of a nearby car, smashing the metal from the fall. He didn't move or budge even after a few moments. He was either unconscious or dead, but she didn't care which state he was in.

It was then when her body finally gave up on trying to sustain itself. Heaving and staggering, she took once last glance around the intersection for a familiar face but there was none. She knew she couldn't keep herself up before anyone came, even Pietro. She heard more sirens and maybe even someone calling her name, but it all swirled together in one big cloud before darkness came.

"So you're telling me that you were just driving down 48th when that guy came out of nowhere and shot out your tires?" Fury questions in disbelief. After the fight, Thalia had collapsed from exhaustion as back up arrived shortly after. Now Pietro and she were in one of the debriefing rooms with doctors tending to them along with Fury, Maria and Steve.

"You think we would lie about something like that?" Thalia eyed the director, already irritated. "Sure, why not. Why don't you just flip to any news channel and see for yourself. See if we're lying then." She huffed in frustration. The adrenaline had worn off when she woke and the pain started surfacing through her body. She was tired, exhausted and just overall annoyed about everything. It took her a great deal to not scream.

Fury sighed and rolled his eye, "I'm not saying that it didn't happen, we're just trying to verify information." He looked over to Maria, letting her take over the conversation.

"We're unable to identify him." She said sullenly, "Finger prints, dental records, face recognition, nothing. It was as if he doesn't even exist."

"That doesn't make any sense." Steve explained, arms crossed and shaking his head.

"You don't by any chance think that this is just history repeating itself, do you Steve?" Nat interjected. The room had gone silent for a moment, leaving Thalia and Pietro confused as to what they were talking about. Steve's face turned sad and Thalia wondered if it was something that hit him too close to home.

"That would be impossible." Steve finally said, so quietly they barely could hear. "You sure he isn't from HYDRA? That would be the most likely option."

She knew immediately that the man wasn't from HYDRA. No. If they had wanted to go after her, they would have already even with her switching her identity. They were an evil group, but they weren't stupid. She sat there, a blank expression on her face as she listened to the in and out conversations filling the room. She looked to Pietro, his leg being stitched and bandaged by one of the doctors. She wondered how different things would be if she had taken better control of the situation. A small wave of guilt washed over her, seeing the discomfort in his face.

"Are you sure there wasn't anything else about this man, Peterson?" She heard Fury's words which snapped her back to reality. She stared at him for a long moment, thinking back to just a few hours ago.

"He knew my name." She uttered, just barely loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. Her words hung in the air as the room fell silent again. She almost wished she had kept that little detail to herself, realizing that it was definitely something to get worried about.

"Someone's definitely going after Thalia, and if it isn't HYDRA, then we have a bigger problem." Steve said.

"I think that's over stating things." Thalia countered, trying to dishevel the subject. She didn't want whatever had happened today to become such a big ordeal. Just something else to add to everyone's plate. She could handle herself.

"No Steve's right Thalia," Pietro finally spoke, looking at her, "You could have been killed today."

"Okay, now that's really over stating things." She scoffed, "Good to know that your confidence in me to take care of myself is at an all-time low, Pietro." She could feel her irritation building up as the conversation went on. She didn't want to be there. She wanted to be back in her comfortable room, away from all of this.

"Thal, you know that's not what I meant." He said softly, sighing shortly afterwards. He had a sad look in his eyes that she couldn't ignore. She didn't say another word, just huffed again and crossed her arms.

"Why don't we let you two get back to your rooms to rest?" Fury suggested, knowing that Thalia was just a few wrong words away from losing it, "Let us deal with this mess. Marias will get back with you when we have more information on the matter." His words were like music to her ears, feeling the tension in her body alleviate a little.

"He's currently unconscious and in a quarantined cell as he's being looked after," Maria added, "We believe he'll be fully awake for questioning in a few days' time, considering the extent of his injuries."

"You both handled everything very well today, especially you Thalia." Steve mentioned on a brighter note, a small smile on his face. They both muttered a small 'thanks' before their doctors wrapped up the last-minute things, prescribed pain medication, and scheduled follow-ups for the next week. Thalia had to help Pietro walk when they left, filling in as support with an arm slung over her shoulder.

"You really were great out there today." Pietro commented as they walked, hoping to get on her good side.

"Yeah, yeah." Thalia said, holding down a smile, "Keep moving, Maximoff."

Wanda had been waiting for the both of them at the end of the hall, an anxious and worried look on her face. They exchanged a few words in Russian as they got closer, making Thalia's heart swell to see how close they were.

"Thank you for saving my brother." Wanda said appreciatively, her lips spreading into a warm smile.

Thalia chuckled slightly, "Is that what he told you? If it wasn't for me, he'd probably be zooming around here at the speed of light, perfectly healthy."

"None of it was your fault." Pietro scolded, "There was nothing you could have done."

"Yes there was," She argued back, "If I would have been able to stop the car sooner-"

"Thalia." Pietro exclaimed, interrupting her. "I'm fine. I'll be okay." She opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. He knew she cared about his well-being just by the look on her face, even though her weird way of showing it was to get upset and argue about it. Wanda eyes the two, amused from their little lover's quarrel.

"We should probably get you back to your room." Wanda noted.

"Yeah no kidding, you brother's getting painfully heavy." Thalia teased, which only resulted in Pietro leaning all of his weight on her.

"You'd think that with everything that's happened today would put a shut on that mouth of your from being so tired." Pietro teased, "But I guess not."

"You know, you really shouldn't say that to the person that's helping you walk. You wanna end up in a wheel chair?" She threatened, but only earned a few laughs from the twins.


	16. Chapter 16

Thalia had expected Pietro's room to be a bit more…exciting. When they arrived in his living quarters, there really wasn't much to look at. It was simple and partially clean, with the same sort of furniture that Thalia had in her room but in a different layout. But there were no decorations or barely any personal items that indicated that it was his room.

"You've been here how long and didn't even bother to redecorate?" Thalia asked as they walked through the foyer, Wanda following closely behind them.

"I like it the way it is." Pietro countered, limping alongside her towards the living room couch.

"How long before you can walk again?" His sister asked. She walked around the room and absent mindedly started picking up stray pieces of laundry off the floor.

"Couple of days," He replied, "Just bruised the bone, didn't break anything." He finally released his hold on Thalia and plopped down on the couch, making sure not to further injure his ankle. Thalia stood there awkwardly as the twins chatted casually with each other, making her feel out of place once again.

"I'm gonna head back to my room to shower," Thalia chimed in, slowly making her way towards the front door, "I'm in dire need of one, really." She tried ignoring the sad puppy dog face Pietro had on as his eyes followed her. A part of her wanted to stay, but there was no better company than his own sister.

"Alright then." Pietro called back to her disappointingly as there was no changing her mind, "See you later?"

"Sure thing." She waved to both of them before making her escape.

A hot shower was definitely what she needed in order to relieve some tension built up from her entire day. The water poured down her sore muscles, stinging in such a good way. Especially her neck.

After she got out and wrapped her body in a towel, she went to examine herself in the bathroom mirror. Using the palm of her hand, she wiped away the cloak of fog that covered the glass and looked closer; she had a few cuts and bruises on her face, but nothing that wouldn't heal in a few days' time. What really caught her attention were the large dark marks already forming on the sides of her neck. She ran her fingers up and down her skin, wincing at some more tender parts.

"Good God, that's going to get ugly." She uttered to herself. She dressed herself in a comfy shirt and shorts, ready to relax on her bed for an eternity. It had seemed so late in the evening just from so many events that happened, yet she wondered how late it really was. She shuffled through her black shorts she had worn earlier that day, finding her phone in her pocket to check the time: six in the evening. But in addition to that, there had also been a new unread text message from Pietro.

 **Can you bring me food? I'm hungry.**

She rolled her eyes at the message, this was all he had to say after everything they've been through?

 **Why don't you have your sister bring you food?**

 **She's busy.**

 **Oh, and you just assume I'm not?**

 **Well…are you?**

She shook her head and resisted the urge to smile. Even in the confines of her room she still wasn't safe from him. He had sent yet another message to her before she could even reply:

 **If you were busy, you wouldn't be texting to me.**

Now she wanted to throw her phone across the room.

 **What's in it for me if I bring you food?**

 **;)**

 _Now_ she wanted to punch him in the face.

 **Gross.**

 **I'm kidding. Have you seen Mad Max?**

 **The Mel Gibson movie?**

 **No, there's a new one. Why don't you come over and watch it with me?**

She debated if she should go or not, weighing in her options; she could go to sleep now and most likely get one of the best nights of sleep she's had in a while or she could watch a movie she had no idea what it was about. It was then that her stomach rumbled loudly in the quietness of her room. The thought of food couldn't be pushed away from her mind now.

 **What do you want to eat then?**

 **Can you just come over here so we can talk in person? Texting makes me impatient.**

She huffed in frustration at his last response, not wanting to abide by his request so easily. However, the back and forth irritated her just the same. But if it got her closer to eating food then it wasn't all bad. She slowly got off her bed, phone in hand, and left her room towards Pietro's.

"It's unlocked!" She could hear Pietro shout from the other side of the door when she knocked. He had been in the same exact spot from when she left, but now he too was dressed in more comfortable clothing, hair damp from a shower.

"So how was it, showering with a bag on your leg?" She asked, a smirk on her face as she walked across the room. He wore a sleeves shirt and basketball shorts, almost matching her.

"Wonderful." He replied shortly, eyeing her up and down. She ignored his looks, a punch to the face still on her mind, and plopped down on the opposite side of the couch.

"So what's the plan?" Thalia asked casually, glancing over at Pietro's bandaged leg that rested on the coffee table.

"I thought we were going to watch a movie?" He asked innocently, flipping to what looked like a preview of the movie he spoke of, Mad Max: Fury Road.

"Okay, I never agreed to watch the movie." Thalia teased, "I came for the food and only the food. If we're not going to eat, then I'm leaving."

"Well what do you want to eat?"

She thought for a moment what sounded good to her. Her knee bounced up and down as she thought about what was in the 'community fridge' in the mess hall; it mostly consisted of healthy foods that she was already getting tired of eating from the past few weeks. An idea suddenly popped into her head, making her pull out her phone to send a message to Maria:

 **Hey Maria, it's Thalia. How does it work if I wanted to order pizza?**

Maria had had pizza delivered for them right up to Pietro's room. She didn't know if someone had to go pick it up or have it delivered to the compound. A small laugh erupted from her throat as she tried to image a pizza guy delivering to the Avenger's Facility. The look on their face must've been priceless.

"I'll admit, this was a pretty good idea." Pietro said, grabbing a cheesy slice from the pizza box, inhaling in the tasteful aroma, "I can't believe I've never thought about ordering pizza and I've been here for over six months."

"You're welcome." She commented snidely, grabbing a slice swell. It had been so long since she had pizza. The last time she'd recall having it was when she first arrived in Massachusetts after working a closing shift with Ashley at Barnes & Nobles. And from then on it was only packaged ramen and macaroni and cheese.

They ate in silence for a while as Thalia somehow gained the TV remote and started flipping through the screens displayed. It was opened on Amazon, giving her a multitude of movie and show options. It surprised her since she only remembers it being a website you could buy stuff from.

"So we can, like, watch movies on here instantly?" She asked, eyes glued to the screen.

"Yeah. Well, only the ones that tell you are available to watch instantly. You should have it in your room too. All the rooms do, I think."

"Really?" She really wished Pietro hadn't told her that. Now she'll never leave her room.

"Yeah, you mean you haven't used it? You've been here for over a month now." He remarked, to which she gave no answer and instead took another bite of her pizza and continued scrolling through the app. "Thalia, have you even turned on your TV since you got here?" He asked and again no answer, causing him to laugh.

"I've been busy!" She said finally, her mouth full of doughy goodness. "Not like you Mr. I've-Got-All-The-Time-In-The-World-Cause-I-Get-Everything-Done-In-Two-Seconds.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full." He scolded, laughing again.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full." She mimicked, taking another bite. He then reached out one of his hands towards her to tickle her as punishment. She jerked away, swatting his hands and pointed a finger at him. "Don't. Tickle. Me." She warned, glaring at him.

"Okay, fine." He said, backing his hands to surrender. She nodded, a pleased look on her face before turning her attention back to the television. Pietro's eyes were still on her, unable to take them off suddenly. It was so bizarre, their friendship. One moment they could be arguing about something unimportant and the other they have moments like this: just relaxed and comfortable around each other.

It was unclear to him how they've gotten to this level of trust. He thought for the longest time that they would never get to this point. He didn't complain though, he was just glad that now she saw him as a friend. His eyes then trailed down to the bruises on her neck, making his heart swell.

"Thalia."

"Hmm."

"Look at me." He asked softly. Not thinking anything of it, she turned simply to look at him and when she saw the hurt look in his eyes, her expression changed.

"What?" She asked cautiously, furrowing her brows in confusion. He didn't say a word, but once again reached out his hand towards her but this time his hand went for her shoulder. "Wait. What are you-"She started but stopped when she realized what he was doing; he gently brushed her hair off her shoulders, making her body immediately tense up.

"Don't worry, I just want to see." He explained, eyes still on her injuries. She felt herself looking in a completely different direction, trying to occupy her mind from what was going on. He traced his fingers around the dark spots that would soon get worse in color. She braced herself for a little pain as he did so, but Pietro's touch was so gentle, so soft that it left nothing but small goosebumps across her skin. Her heart was racing now, and a fluttery feeling bubbled in the pit of her stomach. A small portion of herself told her that this wasn't right, but another part that was so much bigger actually enjoyed it. A brief moment of human contact that she would usually reject, but somehow didn't.

She heard a huff of anger escape his lips, making her look at him. His expression had suddenly changed to something that Thalia wasn't used to. To something that surprised her: he was angry and upset and she could only guess it was because of her bruises.

"I'm okay." She reassured him, reaching up to pull his hand away from her and squeezing it gently, unsure if it was the right thing to do.

"You say that now." He muttered, leaning back against the couch. In a way he was right; most likely the bruises and pain would get much worse in the morning, but it wasn't anything that she couldn't handle.

"Nothing that I haven't been through before." She replied meekly, forcing a small smile, "But never mind that," She added, waving off the gloomy situation, "Let's watch Mad Max, you've been pestering me about this movie long enough." The silence went on for a lot longer than she bargained for as Pietro's didn't even reply or look at her, making her heart sink. She searched his face for something, an answer for what was possibly going through his mind. Why did not knowing bother her so much?

"Pete." She muttered, slowly reaching out and grabbing his hand again that was resting on his knee. Unfortunately, she had no idea what else to do at this point. She wasn't good with things like this. So she did the only thing that seemed reasonable; she raised his hand slowly up to her mouth, him still not paying any attention, and sunk her teeth in just at the fore arm.

"OW." Pietro shouted, jumping slightly and finally looking at Thalia like she had lost her mind, "Why did you do that?!"

"Because you worry too much about everything, you doofus." Thalia explained as a matter of factly, grinning at him, "Now are we watchin' the movie or not?" Her words once again hung in the air, but this time she could see Pietro's mouth form from a thin line to a wide smile.

"Course."

For the first half hour of the film, Thalia had to admit that the movie was pretty interesting so far. Though she was never one to be picky about movies, just as long as they weren't cheesy romantic comedies; those she absolutely hated. But as time passed by, she felt her eye become heavier as her body started to catch up with itself of all that's happened.

"Sleepy?" She heard Pietro ask from beside her when she couldn't stop yawning every five minutes or so which made him sleepy as well. She wanted to answer him and say no, but her body had been too exhausted to even keep her eyes open. It wasn't long after that Thalia soon felt her mind and body drift away from it all as she fell into a sudden but deep sleep.

* * *

Thalia had woken up the next morning, sore and aching from the events of yesterday. She groaned slightly as her eyes fluttered open, shifting her body to get comfortable. Then she instantly froze, finally realizing where she was; she was still in Pietro's room and on his couch and above all she was lying against his sleeping body. His arm was casually slung around her shoulder, her head resting against his chest. Her heart started racing, unsure of what exactly had happened the night before. She racked her brain, but to her knowledge _nothing_ had happened besides her falling asleep during the movie.

She made to move away from him but it was no use as Pietro's arm kept her body in place. She huffed in frustration as she laid there with nothing to do besides listening to the steady breaths coming from Pietro. Next to her, he felt incredibly warm and being in his arms made her feel, in a way, safe. She didn't want to wake up, mainly because it would be extremely awkward for him to realize their positions and also, she sort of liked it.

She scanned the dark room, wondering what time it actually was. Her phone still rested on the coffee table just barely out of her reach, blinking green to indicate that she had unchecked notifications whether it was a missed call or text. Stretching out her free hand, Thalia bared with the new incoming pain in her neck and inched closer and closer until her fingers were able to reach the device.

"Yes-ow! Shit-ow!" She hissed as quietly as her body would allow her to when she retreated. She turned on the screen only to see a missed call from her friend Ashley. In turn, she sent her a quick text about the missed call, and that she would return it when she had the time, whenever that may be. Then a thought came to her about the events of yesterday; she figured there must've been something out in the media by now and that she had been too caught up in other things to realize it. Her stomach twisted just thinking about the possibility of Ashley catching even a glimpse of it.

She then quickly flipped to the news section on her phone browser and her demise, every single news article was titled with something that related to her: 'Heroine spotted in Manhattan', 'New Avenger?', 'Destruction in downtown, a friend or foe?'

"Don't stress out over the news." Pietro's voice came from next to her, causing Thalia to jolt slightly, almost dropping her phone on her face.

"HOLY SHIT!" She exclaimed from the sudden pain in her neck, "How long have you ben awake?" She asked, turning her head as best as she could to glare at him.

"Not very long." He answered simply, removing his arm around her to stretch, "How long have _you_ been awake?" He smiled at her mischievously, a look on his face that pointed out he was happy about their sleeping position. She uttered a sound of disgust before scooting to the other side of the couch so she could get a better look at her surroundings.

"Longer than you've been awake." She replied, ignoring the still amused looks he was giving her. "I should probably get going back to my room anyway."

His smile faded, "Oh, right." He said, trying his best not to sound disappointed. "What time is it?"

"9:30." She answered shortly as she slowly and carefully stood up off the couch, walking over to the nearest light switch to turn it on. As soon as light flooded the room, Thalia caught herself meeting Pietro's gaze as silence stretched awkwardly in the air. "How's your leg by the way?" She asked finally, trying to steer the moment into an actual conversation. He looked over his bandaged leg that was still propped on the coffee table and wiggled his toes.

"Feels much better now actually. I might be able to walk on it soon. How's your neck?" He asked, turning his head back to her. Thalia instantly felt self-conscious about her injury as she hunched her shoulders, trying to hide it from his view; but the pain just made her wince.

"It's fine, I guess." She stated, trying to sound confident, "It probably looks worse than it feels."

"Do you want me to take a look at it?"

"No, no it's fine." She waved the question off with a forced laugh, "I'm okay, Pete." She could tell he wanted to say something more as he peered suspiciously from across the room, but he never got the chance as there was a sudden knock at the door.

"Should be open!" Pietro called out before sighing and turning on the TV. The door opened a few seconds later to reveal his sister, Wanda.

Thalia felt her body freeze up as soon as she made eye contact with the other twin, feeling that she had been caught guilty of something, "H-hey Wanda." She greeted uncomfortably, a half-smile spreading on her face. Wanda opened her mouth to greet her back, but the realization of Thalia still being in the room left her speechless. She looked suspiciously back from her brother lying on the couch to Thalia and her messy bed-head and started putting two and two together. Pietro must have known something unusual was plotting inside Wanda's head when he looked over and saw a huge grin on her face.

"What is it?" He inquired.

"Did you two…spend the night together?" She asked, still not able to wipe the smile off her face.

"It's not what it looks like." Thalia blurted out, hoping to defuse the mess that was untangling but it was no use, "I…was just leaving actually." She felt heat rising in her cheeks as both of the twins' eyes were on her. "I'll see you both later." She added shortly, eyes glued to the floor before maneuvering around Wanda and swiftly taking her leave.

"Care to explain?" Wanda asked after a long silence passed between the two, a small laugh escaping her lips.

"Not really, no." Her brother teased before suddenly becoming quite interested in some random show that screened on the television.


	17. Chapter 17

**Another update for you guys! Just a heads up: this is the longest chapter by far that I've posted, but really I felt like everything in this chapter needed to be included as I'm introducing a new character. Apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar errors. Enjoy!**

* * *

When Thalia returned to her room, the first thing she did was retreat to her nice soft bed that she had missed. Sleeping on a couch all night really did a number on her body. Her mind, still jittery from over analyzing the events that took place from yesterday to just five minutes ago, including her awkward get-away. A small part in the back of her mind worried about the possibility of the incident traveling around the team, but Wanda didn't seem to be the type of person that would waste her time gossiping about nothing. That was something Thalia liked about her.

Her mind continued to wander as she enjoyed the quietness of the room and the coolness of her blankets against her skin when came a knock at her door.

"Ugh, really? Right now?" She complained just as she got comfortable. She groaned loudly before pushing herself off her bed, thinking it must be Maria, coming to address yet another thing, "Be right there!" She called out as she shuffled slowly to the door.

When she reached the door, she turned the metal handle, opening the door. She half- expected the tall brunette to be standing in front of her, a tight smile on her lips and tablet clutched to her chest, but she was surprised to see that it wasn't.

"Steve." She muttered, surprise lingering in her voice. She eyed her captain who stood casually in the hall way, dressed in a light t-shirt and jeans as if it was a normal day at home.

"Hey Thalia," He greeted politely, a smile resting on his face, "I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time?"

"Did-did I do something wrong?" She questioned him, yesterday's events coming back to her, "Am I fired?"

"No, it's nothing like that." He laughed, eyes crinkling, "I just wanted to talk to you about a few things."

"Oh, sure." She said, stepping aside from the doorway, "Do you want to come in?"

"Thanks." He nodded before stepping in. Slowly, he made his way towards the main room, taking a few curious glances around, "Guess all of the rooms really do look the same, huh?"

"Aside from a minor touch from yours truly, I guess so." Thalia joked as she made her way to sit down on the couch.

"You enjoy reading a lot?" Steve asked, noticing the shelves stocked with books.

She eyed in the same direction as Steve, "Uh, yeah I used to. I haven't been getting a lot of free time lately. It's this job that I have, crazy." She joked again, casting a smirk towards Steve's way.

"Lots of overtime?" He asked, playing along.

"Tons. And I'm not even getting any extra pay." (Well, that she wasn't entirely sure of)

"Well that sounds terrible. Your boss must be really lousy."

She shrugged, a smile on her face, "He's not so bad. He's a nice guy once you get to know him. _Really_ loves his country."

Steve laughed a little harder than Thalia ever had the chance to witness; it was a little amusing to say the least. He still stood there in the middle of the living room when Thalia thought by now he would've taken a seat. She patted the empty cushion next to her, gesturing for him to sit on the other end and after a few moments he did.

Thalia fidgeted with her hands as they sat in a comfortable silence. The last time they were in a room alone was when they first met. It really has only been a little over a month, but it seems like a lot has changed since then.

"You doing okay?" Steve asked quietly, interrupting the silence. She looked up from her lap to meet his gaze; he raised an eyebrow at her, a bit of concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine, why do you ask?" But before he could even answer, Thalia realized that Steve had been eyeing her neck, "Oh, this? It's a lot better than it actually looks, trust me. It's just really sore."

"If it's any comfort, you were really brave out there." He noted, causing the corners of Thalia's mouth to twitch slightly upward.

"I've dealt with worse." She said casually, sounding like a broken record, "Is that what you came here to talk to me about, Steve?"

"Sort of. I just wanted to say that how you handled it all yesterday, well…you surprised a lot of us. _All of us_ , actually. Now I'll be honest with you, the Thalia that I first met all those weeks ago probably would have taken the opportunity to make a run for it, leaving Pietro to fend for himself." And just as Steve went on, it dawned on her that he was probably right. A pang of guilt passed through her; she was never that heartless, was she?

"But now I see that I was right all along," Steve added, his serious expression turning into a smile, "You're a good person, even when you don't see it yourself sometimes. I'm proud of ya, Thal."

Thalia gave herself a mental kick in the ass, turning her head to look away as tears brimmed her eyes. A nostalgic feeling had hit her awfully hard, hearing those words again. Except the last time it came from her father, praising her for graduating high school. How long ago that was. The memory came crashing forward and she tried desperately to keep from looking so emotional in front of Captain America. Steve on the other hand didn't pry; her silence was enough for him to know that she gets it. That people can change, even people like Thalia Peterson, who had spent years building up a hard shell.

"There's one more thing," Steve spoke again, breaking the silence. He reached into the back pocket of his jeans to retrieve a piece of folded paper, handing it over to her.

Eyes now dry, she cautiously took the slip with her hand. She opened the fold, examining what Steve had written down:

Annie Holms

516-783-5522

1012 Jerusalem Ave Apt 2147

Queens, New York 11375

She stared at the writing for a long time yet no connections were being made in her head.

"The mother of the boy you saved yesterday from the street." Steve added in, seeing the lost look on Thalia's face, "She broadcasted a request to thank you in person. Maria then got a hold of her. She left her information and said she'd love it if you'd stop by soon to thank you in person."

Thalia stared inaudibly at the paper again; awestruck that someone would have made such an effort in order to thank her. She pushed down the urge the smile. Her mind didn't even hesitate on thinking of going, it was her turn to make an effort in exchange. But she knew that leaving the facility so soon again wouldn't set well with Maria or Nick.

"I really would like to, but," She sighed, "I don't think Maria would even let me step foot off the compound."

"Hmm," Steve furrowed his brows, gears turning in his head. Then he looked to her, smiling, "I think I can work something out."

* * *

Thalia had barely scraped by with being able to leave the compound again under such circumstances. She had to beg Maria into it, stating that if she didn't do this today she wouldn't be able to find the time until much later. And if it wasn't for Steve there to convince her as well, Thalia knew the answer would've been a firm 'no'. Maria gave in eventually, knowing that she was just going to be pestered until she agreed to it anyway.

This time however, Thalia had to have her own driver along with another Agent that tagged along in the passenger seat as they drove to their destination.

"Now, Agent Hill was very clear on this escort;" The Agent, whose name she had already forgotten, started, "There and back. No additional side trips." His voice came out firm and clear. Thalia thought the Agent sort of took his job a little too seriously, only making her roll her eyes as a response. She wasn't planning on going anywhere else. In the state that her neck was in, she didn't plan to either. As time passed she figured the large marks on her neck grew darker, forcing her to wear a jacket with a flared collar in hopes of covering up at least most of it.

Her chauffeur had noted that the drive wasn't going to be very long, twenty minutes at most. And as Thalia counted the minutes that passed by on the screen of her phone, she grew more anxious. She hadn't thought of what she was going to do or say. And the lack of being prepared only added to her nervousness. She hadn't realized how involved she was with her thoughts until she noticed the car coming to a complete stop.

"We're here." The driver said simply. Thalia looked out the window to see them parked in front of a red brick apartment building slotted in between what seemed to be a small corporate office of a bank and a convenience store. It didn't seem like much, but who was she to judge? Before she had be given such a comfortable lifestyle, she lived in a shack. Literally.

"Thanks for driving me." Thalia said as she straightened herself up, unclipping her seat-belt and making to leave the car.

"Should I accompany you, Miss Peterson?" The Agent asked as he too started shuffling in the front seat.

"Oh, no you don't have to do that." She countered quickly, not knowing what to say as she exited the car, "It's kind of a personal thing, you know?" She could tell that he didn't know what to say either as he stopped his movements suddenly, the driver not wanting anything to do with the conversation.

"Right. Sure." The Agent said finally, "Let us know if you need anything then. My number should already be registered into your contacts."

"Okay…" She still couldn't remember his name and now she felt stupid for her lack of good memory. She tried to think of what it possibly could be, but nothing came to her.

"It's Ryan." He added shortly, an obvious gesture to indicate he quickly caught on to her dilemma.

"Right. Ryan." She repeated, feeling like a total idiot before shutting the car door and heading for the building entrance.

* * *

Per the small map by the entrance; the apartment was located on the second floor and it took Thalia no time to find herself in front of the door labeled '2147'. In the silence that filled the hall, she could hear noise from the other side: a kid's laugh and a women's soft voice, but it was too far for Thalia to make out the words. She stood there for what seemed like a good five minutes, still unsure of what to say when the door opened.

"Come on, stop being a chicken shit." She grunted to herself, bringing her closed hand up to the surface of the door and knocked two, three times. Her whole body felt shaky, ticking seconds off slowly in her head before hearing footsteps pattering towards the door. There was a few jumble of locks being turned before the door opened, revealing a girl that caught Thalia by surprise.

The girl was young, a lot younger than Thalia imagined her to be. She must've been a year or two younger than she was, and only that. She had short, strawberry blonde hair and bright green eyes, captured in her lightly freckled face. She was a bit taller than Thalia was, but a lot slimmer, making her seem a bit frail. But she was beautiful, beautiful in a way that a flower would be in a yard full of weeds, soft and fragile. She smiled kindly, making the corners of her eyes crinkle.

"Hi, you must be Thalia, right?" Her voice came out just as soft and warm as her smile, making Thalia notice that she'd been holding her breath.

"Uh, yeah." She stammered, trying to snap out of it, "And you're Annie?"

She nodded, still smiling, "Annie Holms." She extended out her hand, which Thalia took without hesitation. "Come in, please!" Annie then opened the door fully, ushering for her to come inside.

The apartment wasn't extravagant; the structure on the inside was an ideal representation of the old, red brick building on the outside. The loft was small with simple furnishings, but it definitely felt cozy. As she stepped through the foyer, she could hear the white noise of the TV in the distance.

"Nice place you have here." Thalia forced out, unable to stand there with nothing to say. She looked over to Annie just when she finished securing all the locks on the door. She wore a peach colored sundress with a white cardigan that blended well with her slightly tanned skin.

"Awe, that's real sweet of you." She mentioned, making her way from the door to Thalia, "I'm really glad that you came. I actually wasn't expecting such a quick response. I always thought that super heroes were always 'super' busy, no pun intended." She laughed, her eyes twinkling, "But I'm guessing it's because you're still recovering, right?"

It took Thalia a moment to get what she was implying, but then she knew when she caught a glimpse of her gaze falling to her neck. She suddenly felt self-conscious, hunching her shoulders upward.

"Oh crap," Annie added, wide-eyed, knowing that she crossed the line a little, "I'm so sorry, I-"

"No, no it's fine." Thalia reassured, "I know it looks bad. I'm just sorry you have to look at it." She joked, trying to make light of the situation.

"Well hopefully it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks." Annie noted, a smile coming back to her face, "But hey, what are we standing here for? You wanna see him, don't you?" Thalia wanted to ask 'who?', but she knew right away who Annie was referring to. Now she couldn't ignore the ruckus that was coming from the living room. She nodded, letting Annie lead the way down the hall.

The living room, too, was small. With a wide window that stretched almost all along one side of the room. The curtains were drawn, letting the autumn sun shine through. The view over looked the nearby city of New York and Thalia could have sworn she saw Tony's tower in the distance, but she would have to get closer to get a better look.

"Isaac, aren't you going to say hi to our guest?" Annie called out, dragging Thalia's attention away from the window to the brown haired boy playing on the floor in front of the TV. He stopping mid-crashing two action figures together and turned around to look at his savior standing awkwardly next to his mother.

"It's you!" He exclaimed, jumping off the floor and running towards her. He crashed into Thalia, hugging her legs and making her stumble back a little. The sudden affectionate gesture catching her off guard.

"Hah, hey kiddo." She reached a hand down to pat him on the head.

"Isaac." Annie scolded, "I'm sorry, he's just been really excited to see you. Soon as we got home yesterday he wouldn't stop talking about you."

"Oh that's alright," Thalia laughed, looking down to see Isaac beaming up at her with big green eyes just like his mother.

"Well why don't you go sit down on the couch," Annie suggested, "I'll make your something to drink. Tea? Coffee? Soda?"

"Cookies!" Isaac added, making Thalia smile at his excitement.

"Coffee please," Thalia finally said, "And I wouldn't mind cookies too." She looked down and gave Isaac a wink.

"Okay." Annie sighed playfully before walking off into the kitchen.

"Do you wanna see my toys?" Isaac asked, grabbing her arm and tugging it in the direction of the pile of toys that littered the ground. She nodded, since saying 'no' wasn't even an option, and preceded to be pulled across the room and onto the floor next to him. The first thing that Thalia found extremely amusing was that his toys consisted of a Captain America action figure, along with Iron Man, the Hulk, and other well-known members of her team. She made a mental note, saving this interaction to bring up to her friends later.

"Does it hurt really bad?" The kid's voice caught Thalia off guard, she turned her gaze from the action figures on the floor to Isaac, his green globes blinking back at hers. He then pointed a small finger in the direction of her neck, a worried expression on his face.

"Oh." She leaned back from him and shrugged her shoulders a bit. She really needed to think of a better way to cover up her bruise. She smiled slightly at him, "Only a little. You should see the other guy. He won't go scaring people anymore."

His face lit up, a huge smile coming back to his face, "Good!" He cheered before returning to the figures he had in front of him like their previous conversation never happened. "Cap used to be my favorite," He added (of course it was), "But you're my favorite now."

Thalia widened her eyes, not expecting to ever surpass Steve in literally anything, but then again Isaac was just a kid.

"I asked Mommy if I could get your toy for my birthday," He went on, "But she says you're a new superhero, so they don't have you as a toy yet."

"When's your birthday, Isaac?" Thalia asked, trying to steer the subject. It would be a long while before _anyone_ made her into an action figure. Just the thought of it made her uncomfortable.

"Next month!" He exclaimed, "I'll be five!" He held up his hand, showing her his age with all of his fingers.

"How about this," Thalia leaned in to whisper, "On your birthday, I'll take you to see Captain America."

"Really? You mean it?!" He asked, nearly exploding with joy. She nodded, causing him to jump around the room. Her own actions had surprised her; it wasn't like her to suggest or offer something like this on free will. But then again, it kept her conscience clear. And Isaac's cheery energy resembled so much of her own brother's that it brought a homey feel back into her.

And then it hit her: As she watched Isaac prance happily around the living room, she could've sworn she saw a horrifyingly clear projection of her brother instead.

"Casey?" She whispered, not believing what she was witnessing. She blinked a few times and after a few long moments, it was Isaac again. She didn't know why she said Casey's name. Her brother was dead, and that was something that couldn't be changed.

The unfortunate reality of the matter set in and again and Thalia felt the overwhelming panic growing in her chest. She couldn't lose it. Not here, not now.

"Hey Annie!" She called out, "where's your bathroom?" She hoped that her host didn't notice the wavering in her voice as she waited for an answer.

"Down the hall, first on the right!" Annie called back, fortunately not looking up from what she was doing in the kitchen.

Thalia managed to get up a little too quickly and made her way to the bathroom. She stormed in, making sure not to slam the door as she closed it and immediately went over to the sink. She gripped the porcelain for support as she tried to steady her irregular breathing.

"You're okay." She muttered between breaths, "You're here, not there. Casey's there, not here." The anxiety kept rising, but she continued to repeat the words until she finally calmed down with the bad thoughts leaving her. She turned on the sink, splashing cold water on her face.

This wasn't the first time that something like this had happened to her. These hallucinations, these blips of images and voices that seemed all too real, still seemed to haunt her even after so much time has passed. She cursed through her breath, frustrated that these episodes, along with her nightmares, always seemed to put her two steps back when she tried so hard to move on.

"Thalia! I have your coffee ready!" She could hear Annie's voice come from the living room.

"And cookies!" Isaac added along. Thalia splashed more cold water on her face before drying it off, gathering her equilibrium in the process. She took one last deep breath before returning to the living room.

"Chocolate chip cookies I hope." Thalia exclaimed, forcing a smile as she saw Annie setting down a tray of cookies on the main coffee table. She sunk into one side of the couch, thanking Annie for the steaming cup of coffee that was given to her. The coffee was just what she needed, the hot liquid bringing warmth back into her body. Isaac had gone straight for the cookies, dunking them in his small cup of milk before devouring them one by one.

"So did you just join the Avengers recently? It was kind of a shock to the city when everything happened yesterday." Annie noted before taking a sip of her tea. Thalia knew that it had been spreading through the news, but she hadn't realized it was as big as Annie made it out to be. She felt the urge to take out her phone and scroll through all the news sites again.

"Yeah, something like that." Thalia replied, "I was just trying to keep everyone safe."

"Oh, I don't doubt that." Annie smiled, "Seriously Thalia, I can't really thank you enough for all that you did. Everything just happened so fast; we were just walking on the street and all of a sudden the accident was happening right in front of our eyes. And the next thing I know, I'm being pushed away by random people and police officers and Isaac missing from my side…" Thalia could see tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

"Hey," Thalia assured, placing a hand on Annie's, "It wasn't your fault. Isaac's here now and he's safe, eating more cookies than I've ever seen a kid eat." Annie laughed at her comment, looking over at her son who was on either his sixth or seventh cookie.

"See, this is why I don't understand how people don't think of you all as heroes." Annie muttered, causing a confused look to develop on Thalia's face, "You know how the city was attacked a few years ago by aliens?" She tried explaining, putting her cup of tea down, "Well, ever since then, it just seems like more and more 'gifted' people started surfacing out of nowhere. It was a big controversy, and a lot of people weren't too happy about the fact that they were just living among us. They think the more superheroes there are in this world, the more problems they'll bring. And after what happened in Europe less than a year ago, it just seemed to get even worse."

"Wow, I never thought of it that way." Thalia answered finally, feeling more out of the loop than ever, "I guess I've been kept in the dark about this longer than I thought."

"Don't stress about it," Annie waved her hand on the subject, "There's always going to be someone that disagrees. Like politics."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Thalia agreed. "But enough of that, what about you? Where do you work?"

"Oh, I work at the convenience store just downstairs." Annie said meekly like she had been embarrassed of it, but Thalia didn't understand why. A job was a job.

"I see. So…where does Isaac go when you're working?" She looked over at the small boy, who was now back to playing his toys on the ground.

"Mostly he goes to his dad's grandma's house when he's not in school while I'm working. She lives right down the street. Other times I try to hire a babysitter, but I feel like they charge an arm and a leg for a night these days." She laughed softly. Thalia remembered growing up her parents never had to hire a babysitter, to their luck. She was always the one watching her brother and sister, whether she wanted to or not.

"And are you and Isaac's dad…" Thalia trailed off, not even remotely sure why she had asked such a personal question. She saw Annie tense up slightly, eyes wavering.

"Him and I are separated," She said finally, a sad sigh escaping her lips, "We had Isaac when we were very young. Never married. But we still stay civil with each other, for Isaac's sake." Thalia nodded to her answer, thinking that her accusation of Annie's age was correct, but that didn't make her feel any better.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so nosy like that." She mentioned, twisting her mouth, unsure of what else to say.

"Oh! Please don't feel that way," Annie perked up again, "It's just, I can't remember when's the last time someone had asked about me or my personal life. I don't usually have guests very often." Thalia felt a bit sympathetic for her when she heard that.

"I don't see why," She fidgeted in her seat, "I'm pretty sure you're the nicest person in New York." She could see a slight blush blooming through Annie's cheeks; she must not get compliments very often. Thalia then made to grab the last cookie on the table when she felt her phone buzzing in her back pocket. Pulling it out, she saw Ryan's name light up on the screen. A small huff of anger escaped her lips before she answered, "Yeah?"

"Agent Hill has just given us word that you're needed back at the compound immediately."

"Okay," She furrowed her brows, "Did Maria say what for?"

"Details will be provided once you re-enter the vehicle." Ryan said firmly. She rolled her eyes, already irritated, Annie ushering out a small laugh.

"Give me ten minutes."

"You have five."

Another eye roll and a quick ten second count in her head to keep from saying something she'll regret later. Ryan was irritating her. "Okay fine, Ryan." And with that she ended the call.

"Work?" Annie figured, a sympathetic smile forming on her lips.

"I'm afraid so." She made to get up off the couch, looking over her shoulder to see that Isaac was now asleep on top of his pile of toys. Captain America still in one of his hands. "I wish I could stay longer."

Annie followed Thalia in suit on getting off the couch as they both made their way for the front door, "Well you're always welcome here. I'm sure Isaac would love to see you again. Poor thing, I think all those cookies must've worn him out." They both laughed, which then reminded Thalia of something.

"When's Isaac's birthday, by the way?" She asked, pulling out her phone again and bringing up her calendar.

Annie looked slightly surprised at her question, "October 20th. Why do you ask?"

She tried her best to explain the plans she had in mind for Isaac as a birthday gift; about bringing Steve to meet him somehow. And as she explained, she saw Annie's eyes light up with every word.

"Y-you'd really do that?" She placed a hand on her heart, eyes watering, "That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for Isaac. Thank you so much." She walked forward and enclosed Thalia in a hug, catching her off guard.

"It's no problem really." Was all she could muster as she quickly hugged her back, feeling a wave of emotion wash over her. She needed to make a quick leave before _she_ started crying.

They said their goodbyes and exchanged numbers, with Thalia promising to call whenever she can. When she returned to the car, it seemed like Ryan and the driver hadn't moved much, if any at all.

"Alright," Thalia said as she got into the car, fastening her seatbelt, "What's so important that you had to tell me in person?" The driver immediately started the engine and pulled away from the curb.

"Some sort of commotion has gone down at the facility." Ryan started, still facing forward in the passenger seat, "Someone tried to force their way into the building. They were after you."


End file.
